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"CLOTHED WITH THE SUN" 



BEING THE BOOK OF THE ILLUMINATIONS 



OF 






ANNA (BONUS) KINGSFORD 



EDITED BY 









-V 



EDWARD MAITLAND 



"Illumination is the Light of Wisdom, whereby a man perceiveth heavenlj 
secrets. 

" Which Light is the Spirit of God within the man, showing unto him the 
things of God.* ^"*"T, ^c ^T^*^ Illumination No. ii. 




NEW YORK : 

FRANK F. LOVELL & COMPANY 

142 and 144 Worth Street. 



\ 






Copyrighted by 
John W. Lovell Compa.v 



2>eMcatfott 

To the numerous and world-wide circle of genuine students of Divine 
things, who recognised in Anna Kingsford a Seer, an Interpreter, 
and a Prophet of the rarest lucidity and inspiration, and a foremost 
herald of the dawning better age ; and especially to the Friend whose 
instant and enthusiastic appreciation proved an invaluable support 
in a position of peculiar difficulty, and beneath whose roof some of 
the illuminations herein contained were received, but who desires to 
remain unnamed ; and also to the " friend, disciple, and literary heir 
of the renowned magian, the late Abbe - Constant (" Eliphas Levi")"— 
namely, to the Baron Guiseppe Spedalieri, for manifold tokens of 
high approbation and devoted friendship,— this book is affectionately 
inscribed. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Dedication 
Preface 



PAGES 
V 



PART THE FIRST. 

Illumination 
No. 
I. Concerning the three Veils between Man and God 

II. Part I. Concerning Inspiration and Prophesying 

Part 2. A prophecy of the Kingdom of the Soul 
mystically called the Day of the Woman . 

III. Concerning the prophecy of the Immaculate Concep 

tion ... . . 

IV. Concerning Revelation . 
V. Concerning the Interpretation of the Mystical Scrip- 
tures .... — Part I 

Do. Do. — Part 2 

VI. Concerning the Mosaic Cosmogony . • • 

VII. Concerning the Fall . . . . • 

VIII. Concerning the prophecy of the Deluge . • 

IX. Concerning the prophecy of the Book of Esther . 

X. Concerning the prophecy of the vision of Nebuchad- 
nezzar ...... 

XI. Concerning the prophecy of the time of the End 
XII. Concerning the Soul: its origin, nature, and potentiali- 
ties ...... 

XIII. Concerning Persephone, or the Soul's descent into 
matter ...... 



i-5 

5-7 

8-9 

10-13 
1315 

16-19 
19-21 
22-25 
25-28 
29-30 
3o-3 2 

33-35 
35-41 

41-52 

52-55 



Vlll 



Contents. 



[tLUMINATION 

No. 

XIV. Concerning the Genius or Daimon — Part I 

Do. Do. —Part 2 

XV. Concerning the " Powers of the Air" — Part I 

Do. Do. —Part 2 

XVI. Concerning the Devil and devils . 

XVII. Concerning the Gods . . . 

XVIII. Concerning the Greek Mysteries 

XIX. Concerning the origin of Evil, and the Tree as 

the type of Creation . — Part I 

Do. Do. . —Part 2 

XX. Concerning the Great Pyramid, and the Initia 

tions therein 
XXI. Concerning the " Man of Power " 
XXII. Concerning the " Work of Power" 

XXIII. Concerning Regeneration 

XXIV. Concerning the Man Regenerate . 
XXV. Concerning the Christ and the Logos 

XXVI. Concerning the perfectionment of the Christ 
XXVII. Concerning Christian Pantheism . 

XXVIII. Concerning the " Blood of Christ " 
XXIX. Concerning " Vicarious Atonement" . 

XXX. Concerning Paul and the Disciples of Jesus 
XXXI. Concerning the Manichxanism of Paul . 
XXXII. Concerning the Gospels : their origin and com 
position .... 

XXXIII. Concerning the actual Jesus . . 

XXXIV. Concerning the previous lives of Jesus . 
XXXV. Concerning the Holy Family 

XXXVI. Concerning the Metempsychosis or Avatar 
XXXVII. Concerning the ^Iion of the Christ 
XXXVIII. Concerning the doctrine of Grace • 

XXXIX. Concerning the " Four Atmospheres " . 
XL. Concerning the Hereafter • • 



PAGES 
55-61 

6i-66 
66-70 
70-71 
72-73 
7374 
74-81 

82-83 
8385 

85-S9 

90-94 

94-98 

99-102 

102-107 

107 109 

109-111 

in-112 

112-115 

116-122 

122-125 

126 



127 

131 

136- 
139 
141 
144 
146- 
147 
ISO 



131 
136 

13S 
140 
144 
146 
147 
i49 
i55 



Contents. ix 

Illumination 

NO. PAGES 

XLI. Concerning the true Ego . • • .156-158 

XLII. Concerning God . . . . .159-163 

XLIII. Concerning Psyche, or the Superior Human Soul 164-170 
XLIV. Concerning the Poet, as type of the heavenly 

personality ..... 170-174 

XLV. Concerning Psyche (continued from No. XLIII.) 174-177 
XLVI. Concerning Consciousness and Memory in relation 

to Personality . . . . . 17S-183 
XLVII. Concerning the Substantial Ego as the true Sub- 
ject .... —Part I 183-187 
Do. Do. —Part 2 187-189 
XLVIII. Concerning the Christian Mysteries— Part I . 189-191 
Do. Do. — Part 2 . 191-193 
XLIX. Concerning D>ing .... 194- *97 
L. Concerning the One Life, being a recapitulation . 197-205 



PART THE SECOND. 

THE BOOK OF THE MYSTERIES OF GOD. 

I. The Credo ; being a summary of the spiritual his- 
tory of the Sons of God, and the mysteries of 
the kingdoms of the Seven Spheres . . 210 

II. The "Lord's Prayer;" being a prayer of the 

Elect for interior pcrfectionment . . 211 

III. Concerning Holy Writ .... 212-213 

IV. Concerning Sin and Death . . . 213-215 
V. Concerning the "Great Work," the Redemption, 

and the share of Christ Jesus therein . . 215 221 

VI. Concerning Original Being, or "Before the 

Beginning" ..... 221-223 

VII. Alpha, or " In the Beginning" • • • 223-224 

VIII. Beta, or Adonai the Manifestor . . . , 224-225 

IX. Gamma, or the Mystery of Redemption . . 225-227 



x Contents, 

Illumination 

No. PAGES 

X. Delta, or the Mystery of Generation . % „ 227-230 

XL Epsilon, or the First of the Gods — Proem • • 231 

Hymn to Phoibos ..... 232 233 

XII. Zeta, or the Second of the Gods— Part I. Proem, . 234235 

Hymn to Hermes ..... 236-237 

Part 2. An exhortation of Hermes to his Neophytes 23S-240 

XIII. Eta, or (mystically) the Third of the Gods— Part I. 

Proem ...... 240 

Hymn to the Planet God .... 240-249 

Part 2. — Hymns to the Elemental Divinities — 

(a) To Hephaistos ; 250-252 

(/3) To Demeter ..... 

(7) To Poseidon ..... 

(5) To Pallas Athena .... 

Epode ...... 254-255 

XIV. Theta, or (mystically) the Fourth of the G 

Parti. The Hymn of Aphrodite 
Part 2. A Discourse of the Communion of Souks, 
and of the Uses of Love between Creature and 
Creature ; being part of the Goldene Booke of 
Venus . . . . . .258-269 

XV. Lambda, or the Last of the Gods ; being the Secret 

of Satan ...... 263-269 

XVI. The Seven Spirits of God and their Corresponds 269 

XVII. The Mysteries of the Kingdoms of the Seven 

Spheres . . . . . . 2; 

PART THE THIRD. 
Concerning the Divine Image ; or the Vision of Adonai . S75-284 

APPENDIX. 

Notes . . . . . , , a* 

Definitions and Explanations . » . . 304-314 






PREFACE. 

TN the preface to "Dreams and Dream-Stories " Mrs Kings- 
-*- ford speaks of the " priceless insights and illuminations, 
acquired by means of dreams, which had elucidated for her 
many difficulties and enigmas of life, and even of religion, 
by throwing on them a light which penetrated to their very 
springs and causes." By far the greater number of the 
insights and illuminations thus referred to were received 
during the period of some fourteen years, in which it was 
my high privilege to collaborate with her in the work princi- 
pally represented by our joint book, " The Perfect Way ; or, 
the Finding of Christ," having been expressly vouchsafed, 
first, to bring about our association in that work, and, next, 
to aid us in its accomplishment. Many of them were accord- 
ingly used, either in whole or in part, in our book, — those 
that were not so used being reserved either as not coming 
within its assigned scope, or because their publication at 
that time would, we were instructed, be premature. The 
present volume comprises both those which were so used, 
— such of them as were there given in part being here given 
in full, — and those also which were withheld, — the motive 
for their reservation being no longer operative ; together with 
others, some of which have appeared elsewhere, and some 
were received subsequently. And the publication is made 
in fulfilment of the twofold purpose of separating Mrs 
Kingsford's illuminations alike from her ordinary writings 
and from mine as her collaborator ; and in accordance with 
her express injunctions, emphatically renewed on finding 



xii " Clothed with the Sim" 

her departure imminent. The present volume, however, 
does not exhaust the store of similar treasures left by her, 
but only such portion as comports with the form of publi- 
cation here 'adopted. There still remain sundry lectures 
and occasional papers, and the majority of her conversations 
with her Genius ; — for, as is shown in this book, she was 
privileged in this respect far in excess of any instance known 
to history ; — conversations which, while also constituting 
illuminations, were of too personal a character for inclusion 
in these pages, comprising as they did not only instructions 
for guidance in circumstances of difficulty, but also intima- 
tions — fully borne out by evidence — respecting her own 
previous existences. For in this respect also Anna Kings- 
ford was a demonstration of the great doctrine, the reha- 
bilitation of which was an important part of her mission, — 
the doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul or Ego ; of its 
persistence through all changes of form and conditions, and 
of its power while still in the body, to recover and com- 
municate to its exterior selfhood, its recollections of its past 
existences. Belonging, however, to the category of the 
biographical rather than of the exegetical, all precise 
references in this relation are withheld from these \ 
■ such allusions only being retained as are necessitated by 
the context. 

Although the questions of the derivation and significance 
of the matter herein contained, have been treated with con- 
siderable fulness in " The Perfect Way," — particularly in the 
preface to the revised and enlarged edition, — some account 
is not the less called for here , and this, not only for the 
sake of those readers who may not have prior acquaintance 
.with that book; but also because the removal of the per- 
T sonality concerned has made it possible to speak with 
greater explicitness than was fitting in her lifetime. 



Preface. xiii 

A comparatively brief statement, however, will suffice, 
since the questions to be satisfied are but two in number, 
and the answers to them will be addressed to such persons 
only as are already sufficiently developed in respect of the 
consciousness of things spiritual, as at the least to be capable 
of entertaining propositions involving the reality of the 
region and experiences concerned. For this is a restriction 
which obviates the necessity of arguments and explanations, 
which could not be other than protracted, conceived in 
deference to those who, being totally devoid of the spiritual 
consciousness, are wont to make their own defect of sensi- 
bility an argument against such reality, and to regard denials 
based upon non-experience as effectually disposing of 
affirmations based upon experience. 

The two questions to be elucidated are — (i) The source 
and method of these illuminations; and (2) the nature and 
import of the revelation contained in them, supposing it to 
be, as confidently regarded by ourselves, a new and divine 
revelation. And this, whether judged by the method of its 
communication, or by its intrinsic nature. For the test, no 
less than the testimony, is twofold. 

As respects the first head. These illuminations are in no 
way due to artificial stimulation of faculty, whether by means 
of drugs, or by " animal magnetism," " mesmerism," or 
" hypnotism," or to the induction of any abnormal state 
through the act of the recipient herself or of some other 
person ; all that was or could be done on this behalf being 
the promotion of the interior conditions favourable to the 
reception of them. And these conditions consisted, not 
in the search for phenomenal experiences — though these 
would sometimes occur — but in the intense direction of the 
will and desire towards the highest, and an unchanging 
resolve to be satisfied with nothing less than the highest, 



xl xiv " Clothed with the Sun? 

ne namely, the inmost and central idea of the fact or doctrine 

^ c to be interpreted ; the motive also being the highest, 

° u namely, the emancipation, satisfaction, and benediction 

ca of souls, our own and those of others. As will be seen 

an from this book, the majority of her illuminations were 

W1 received during natural sleep, some in satisfaction of their 

P T recipient's own difficulties, and some in immediate response 

t0 to needs and mental requests of mine, of which she had 

J" 1 no cognisance and surpassing her ability to have satisfied. 

in And not (infrequently the responses surpassed the ability 

f Q1 of either of us to comprehend them at the time, — tl. 

t10 invariably coming through the consciousness, — and only 

P n on our subsequent advance in perceptivity did they fully 

,01 disclose their significance, thereby proving their independence 

u1 ^ of our own limitations. They nc cr, sooner 

tm or later, to demonstrate thei to us as I \ and 

P e self-evident truths, founded indefeasibly in the very nature 

°f of existence ; and never did we finally accept and 

mi until thus demonstrated to and K >oth. 

cx And such, precisely, is the authority to which . 

b K made on their behalf, and in no waj to book, person or 

re * institution — howei I or venerable— or even to the 

SU( manner of their communication, veritably miraculous tl. 

tn< this was, as the term miracle is wont to be understood. 

• to cite the preface to " The Perfect \V .Id it to be 

°} "contrary to the nature of truth I ofautho- 

^sid r ity, or of aught other than the understanding; since truth, 

P r€ how transcendent soever it be, has r. s in the mind, 

1S ! and no other testimony can avail it. . . . What is indis- 

sa k pensable is, that appeal be made tot' mind, and not 

r^ ut to one department of it only." Now, that mind or. 

I s01 had learnt to account a whole mind which comprises the 

S ie two modes of the mind, the intellect and the intuition and 

these duly trained and developed. 



Preface. xv 

Having such derivation and character, these illuminations 
are the product, simply and purely, of the process which has 
ever, by those versed in Divine things, been recognised as 
that whereby Divine communication occurs, — namely, the 
spontaneous operation of the Spirit in a soul duly luminous 
and responsive. Through such operation the perceptive 
point of the mind is indrawn and uplifted to a sphere tran- 
scending both the physical and the astral or magnetic, and 
one altogether superior — because interior — to those access- 
ible to the mere lucid, sensitive, or clairvoyant ; in that it 
is the inmost and highest sphere of man's manifold nature, 
the celestial, or "kingdom within." Attaining to this 
degree of inwardness, the soul is "clothed with the sun" 1 
of full intelligence, recovering all memories and discerning 
all principles and significations, in measure according to its 
capacity as developed by the experiences gained in its many 
earth-lives and in the intervals between, and is enabled also 
to communicate of them to its superficial personality. The 
condition is, moreover, one to enter which is to hold 
direct communion with the "spirits of the Just made 
perfect," and to be qualified to become the mouthpiece 
of the Church invisible and triumphant. So many and 
of such kind were the experiences received by Mrs Kings- 
ford that when, after conjecture had been exhausted 
in the endeavour to frame a satisfactory hypothesis con- 
cerning them, assurance at length came from her own 
angel-genius, declaring the method of this revelation to be 
entirely interior, in that his "client" was a "soul of vast 
experience, knowing all things of herself and needing not to 

1 The " woman " of the Apocalypse and all other mystical Scriptures 
is never a person, but always the soul. Hence the significanc of the 
present title. Any such exaltation of a person would be act of 
idolatry. 

b 



xvi " Clothed with the S?m." 

be told ; who was being divinely enabled to recover hi this 
incarnation the memory of all that was in the past, expressly 
in order to give the world the benefit of the holy and inner 
truth of which she was the depositary ; " — so far from the 
statement — extraordinary and remote from anticipation as it 
was — being found difficult of credence, it was at once re _ 
nised as affording the only solution which reconciled all the 
difficulties and accounted for all the facts. 

And so far, it may be well to add, from these experiences 
occurring in the first instance to persons predisposed to 
accept them, we were— both of us— at their commencement 
utterly sceptical as to their possibility, or as to there being 
any basis of reality for any spiritual phenomena whatsoever. 
Not that we were materialists. In neither of us had percep- 
tion ever been at that low ebb. Rather were we idealists, 
but idealists who had yet to learn that the ideal is the real, 
and that the ideal world is a spiritual and personal world. 
They came, too — as already said — in course of a quest, 
not for phenomena, but for truth ; and were possible only 
because the veil of matter interposed between the worlds 
of sense and of reality had already, by dint of persistent 
earnest seeking inwards, and by the adoption of the mode 
of life which has always, by proficients in spiritual science, 
been insisted on as essential to the higher percept 
become for us so rare and tenuous as to be readily pene- 
trable. The period, moreover, was anterior to that of the 
recent impulse given to such studies by the importation o\ 
kindred knowledges from the East And from first t< 
our work was carried on in complete independence oi 
extraneous sources and influences, such recour-v 
had to books or to persons being on behalf of parallels, 
correspondences, and confirmations in regard to our own 
experiences and results. 



Preface. xvii 

The search for such parallels and confirmations in the 
records of the remote past, proved satisfactory in a measure 
far surpassing aught that we had ventured to anticipate. 
For, over and above the full recognition of our methods, 
facts, and doctrines in quarters worthy the highest respect, 
we discovered clear and positive announcements, both 
Biblical and extra-Biblical, of precisely such an illumination 
to take place at the exact time of its occurrence to us, 
and possessing exactly the features by which it was char- 
acterised for us, — the event itself being variously described 
as constituting a new illumination, the return of the Gods, 
the reign of Michael, the breaking of the seals and opening 
of the Book, the Second Advent, the "number" — or period 
— of the " Beast " ; and the end of the World, — each alike 
implying the downfall of the world's materialistic system, 
both in philosophy and in religion, through the demon- 
stration of the falsity of the materialistic hypothesis. The 
period assigned was that from 1878 to 1882, and it was 
precisely the period of our reception of the chief part of our 
doctrine and of its first promulgation, " The Perfect Way " 
— which consists of lectures delivered in 1881 — having 
been published in the winter of 1881-2. So that whether 
judged by the dates, or by the world's condition, nothing 
was wanting to the accomplishment of the predictions. 
And of these we knew only after the event. 

To come to our second head — the nature and import of 
that which was thus received. It was from the very outset 
made clear to us — and every fresh accession of experience, 
perception, and knowledge served but to confirm the 
intimation — that the event constituted nothing less than the 
re-delivery, from the source and by the method to which it 
was originally due, of the ancient revelation which, under 
the name of the Hermetic or Kabalistic Gnosis, constituted 



xviii " Clothed with the Sun" 

the Sacred Mysteries, and underlay and controlled the 
expression of all the sacred religions and Scriptures, of 
antiquity, and formed at once a perfect system of thought 
and rule of life, in that it was founded in the very nature of 
existence as uniformly discerned under Divine illumination 
by the advanced souls of all times and places. From which 
it will be seen that the claim to be a new revelation does 
not imply a claim to be a new gospel, but a gospel only of 
interpretation, and therein of restoration and reconciliation. 
For the position maintained is that Christianity has failed, 
not because it was false, but because it has been falsified ; 
its official guardians having, after the wont of their order, 
"taken away the key of knowledge (Gnosis), and not only 
not entered in themselves, but hindered those who would 
have entered in." 

The following remarks on the chief points in this indict- 
ment of the Church visible on behalf of the Church invisi- 
ble, will serve to facilitate the comprehension of this book. 

Christianity — which is rightly definable as a symbolic 
synthesis of the fu .damental truths contained in all re- 
ligions — early fell into bad hands. Like its Founder, it was 
crucified between two thieves, who were no other than the 
types of its crucifiers. These were, on the one hand, 
Superstition, which is the distortion of spiritual perception; 
and on the other hand, Materialism, which is the privation 
of spiritual perception. These are the " two beasts " oi 
mystical Scripture, which come up, respectively, from the 
"sea" and the "earth,"' to ravage the hopes of humanity. 
And the two are one under the name of Sacerdotalism, 
being but varied modes of its manifestation. It 
Sacerdotalism that crucified both Christ and the doctrine 
of Christ with its two hands Superstition and Materialism. 

For, operating as Superstition, Sacerdotalism perverted 



Preface, xix 

into mystery, and rendered not merely unintelligible but 
irrational, a gospel which in itself was absolutely simple, 
obvious, and reasonable. This is the doctrine that the true life 
and substance of Humanity are not material and created, but 
spiritual and divine ; and that it is possible for man, by co- 
operating with the spirit within him, and subordinating his 
lower nature to his higher, to rise wholly into and be reconsti- 
tuted — which is "regenerated" — of his higher, and become 
thereby divine, having in himself the power of life eternal. 
And that whereby this is effected — namely, inward purification 
— is the sole secret of the Christs. Wherefore he in whom 
this process finds full accomplishment, has and is Christ, 
and attains the summit of human evolution, the point of 
junction between Humanity and Divinity. Thus demonstrat- 
ing to men in his own person their divine potentialities, and 
the manner of the realisation thereof, and by his loving 
self-devotion on their behalf softening their hearts and win- 
ning them to follow in his steps, he becomes their " Saviour." 
And that he is said to save them by his blood, is because 
" the blood is the life," and the true life-blood of the 
Christ is a spirit absolutely pure, — the inward God in the 
man, — and by the attainment of this pure spirit man is re- 
deemed. And that the Christ is said to suffer and die for 
others, is because through his abounding sympathy he suffers 
even to death in and with them ; — not instead of them — ■ 
"for" does not here mean " instead of" — for that would be 
to deprive them of their means of redemption, since only 
through his own suffering can anyone repent and become 
perfected. 

This doctrine, so reasonable and obvious, and satisfying 
alike to head and heart, Sacerdotalism, operating as Super- 
stition, superseded by shifting the whole edifice of Chris- 
tianity from its proper— because its only intelligible and 



xx " Clothed with the Sun" 

consistent basis in Pantheism, or the doctrine that God is all 
and in all — to that of an impossible Manichaeanism — or the 
doctrine of two eternal, self-subsistent opposing principles of 
good and evil, — a doctrine which by making evil a positive 
thing, and thus exalting it to an equal rank with God, at 
once dethrones God and eternises evil. It deprives God 
also of His supreme quality of Justice, by representing 
Him as accepting physical suffering as an equivalent for 
moral guilt, and the punishment of the innocent in lieu of 
that of the guilty. While by removing Christ from the 
category of the highest human to that of the superhuman, 
it robs all of their potential divinity in favour of the exclusive 
divinity of one; and thereby effectually neutralises the 
significance and value of his mission, the express purpose 
of which was to show his fellow-men, not what could be 
achieved by some great supernatural personage, with whom 
they could have nothing in common, but what they them- 
selves have it in them in due time to become, simply by 
giving fair play to their own best, namely, the ideal of per- 
fection disclosed to them by their own intuition. For the 
fulfilment of the intuition is the realisation of the ideal; and 
the realisation of the ideal is the "Finding of Christ." 

Operating as Materialism, and prelerring the letter to the 
spirit, the symbol to the verity, the form to the substance, 
Sacerdotalism ignored and suppressed the real, because the 
mystical and spiritual, import of Christianity, by means of 
the idolatruus exaltation, as the agents of salvation, of its 
persons, events, forms, and other things physical, in place of 
its spiritual realities, the principles, processes, and states 
implied by these and of which they were the symbolic repre- 
sentatives. The obvious truth that religion, as a thing 
relating not to the senses but to the soul, and appea 
therefore, only to the soul, must consist in things cognate 



Preface. xxi 

to the soul, in that they are of like nature with the soul, 
and not in things material and physical, —was altogether 
set aside, all logical proprieties being violated, as just shown, 
by positing physical bloodshed and suffering as the compen- 
sation for moral guilt, and these, too, of another than the 
guilty — instead of the repentance and amendment to which 
they are ordained to minister. While every expression in 
Scriptures avowedly mystical and parabolical, was enforced 
in its literal sense, in defiance of repeated injunctions in 
Scripture to the contrary. And that which was really "an 
eternal gospel" by virtue of its being founded in the un- 
changing nature of things, and everlastingly demonstrable 
to the mind and verifiable by inward experience, was made 
dependent on the perishable records of physical events in 
themselves exceptional, and liable — whatever the testimony 
— sooner or later to be called into question. 

Christianity was further mutilated, dwarfed, and distorted s 
by the exclusion from recognition and worship due, of 
those Divine Principles or modes of Deity, variously desig- 
nated the Gods and the Spirits of God, by whose immediate 
operation in the soul the man regenerate and made perfect 
is built up, the spiritual chaos is transformed into a kosmos, 
and Christ becomes Christ. The very process of Re- 
generation, moreover, although emphatically declared by 
Jesus to be the sole condition of Salvation, — a process 
wholly spiritual and interior to the individual, — came to be 
either altogether ignored or thrust into the background, in 
favour of that of atonement by vicarious physical bloodshed, 
through the loss of the knowledge of the meaning alike of 
regeneration and of atonement, and the consequent failure 
to recognise those terms as denoting one and the same pro- 
cess, and this a process, as just said, wholly spiritual and 
interior to the individual 



xxii " Clothed with the S?in. r9 

While, as presented by Sacerdotalism, or — to adopt the 
modern equivalent of this term as more appropriate to: 
rest of these remarks — Ecclesiasticism, Christianity is thus 
but a congeries of arbitrary and unintelligible propositions, 
bearing no discernible relation to the needs, aspirations, or 
perceptions, whether of the mind or of the soul ; as pre- 
sented in the recovered Gnosis, it is at once intelligible and 
irrefragable, constituting a perfect system of thought and rule 
of life, and satisfying alike the demands of the keenest mind, 
the longings of the tenderest heart, and the aspirations of 
the most ardent soul. These are characteristics which not 
the most hardy champions of Ecclesiasticism venture to 
claim for the orthodox presentation; but on the con 
they freely acknowledge it to be a problem insoluble by 
reason, and one to be accepted on authority of Church or 
Book, even at the cost of intellectual suicide Said one of 
them recently — a dignitary of the Anglican Church — speak- 
ing, apparently, not alone for his order, but for mankind at 
large, " We weary ourselves vainly in endeavouring to shape 
these truths in#o a system. We have no faculties for such 
speculation. It is enough for us to rest in the language of 
the Apostles." 1 Such is the frank admission of the official 
guardians of the faith according to E< * ism, and the 

admission is one in respect of which it is hard to determine 
whether its candour or its courage is the most conspicuous. 
Its candour, because of its complete indifference to the con- 
sequences to their order which can hardly fail to follow the 
confession that it does not understand its own teaching ; and 
its courage, because of its palpable disregard of the emphatic 
injunctions wherein Scripture expressly reprobates such 
"resting in its language," affirming that the "letter kills," — 
as indeed it has killed the very faculty of the perception of 

1 Canon Westcott on the Atonement- 



Preface. xxiii 

things spiritual in all who have "rested in" it,— and strenuously 
repudiating meanwhile the notion of the incomprehensibility 
of its doctrines, as when it calls on men to " prove all 
things" and to render a "reasonable service," and insists 
on the necessity of " hearing ears and seeing eyes," that is, 
of a " spirit of understanding " in respect of divine things, 
as the indispensable basis of the faith that saves. But to 
this it has come, that after having rendered the doctrine of 
Scripture unintelligible by insisting, against the express in- 
junctions of Scripture, on the literal meaning of the words 
of Scripture, Ecclesiasticism now complains that owing to 
the limitations of human faculty, there is no alternative but 
to rest in the letter of Scripture ! Obviously it is not 
Ecclesiasticism that is entitled to resent the advent of an 
interpretation which, by restoring the Spirit to the letter of 
Scripture, shall restore the doctrine and rehabilitate the 
credit of Scripture. 

But whatever may be the attitude of Ecclesiasticism 
towards the new — or rather the recovered — interpretation, 
that of the world at large is scarcely doubtful The world, 
it is true, has followed the Church in its fall into materiality 
in respect of things spiritual — a fall which, but for the 
Church's initiative, the world had not undergone. But 
there are tokens manifold and indisputable to prove that 
the heart of the world is, nevertheless, in the main right ; 
and, consequently, that — like the Prodigal of the parable — 
having once eaten of the husks of mere materiality — whether 
religious or scientific — it has learned to loathe them, and is 
already coming to its proper, because better, self, and turning 
wistful thoughts homewards. And hence it is that for those 
who in virtue of their " ploughing with the heifer " of the 
spiritual consciousness, are able to "expound the riddle" 1 of 
1 Judges xiv. 12- 18. 



xxiv u Clothed with the Sun" 

the age, the epoch is no other than " Othniel " — God's good 
time; the world is "Caleb" — one whose heart is right; 
" Kirjath-sepher " — the city of the letter — has already sur- 
rendered ; and " Achsah " — the rending of the veil (that hid 
the Spirit), is about to become the bride of the victor, 
bringing to him as her dowry the "upper and nether 
springs" of those blessed results in soul and mind and heart 
and life which ever flow from the lull understanding of 
Divine things. 1 From which it may be surely inferred that 
unless Ecclesiasticism also accept the new interpreta- 
tion, which also is the old, and like a living garment 
participate in the growth of its wearer, it will find itself 
discarded as obsolete; while the new humanity — to which 
it will thus have served but for matrix — will constitute 
itself a new, and more than ever a true, Church, and one 
that can never fail and fall, inasmuch as it will have for 
foundation, not the incohesive sands of authority and 
the letter, but the indefeasible Rock of the Spirit and the 
Understanding. 

The chief means proposed in this book in furtherance of 
its ends, may be summarised as follows : — 

i. The re-establishment of the Understanding as the 
basis of Faith. 

2. The restoration to its true place as the object of 
veneration, of the thing signified — that is, of the spirit, 
substance, verity, or reality— instead of the symbol or 
appearance of it ; and therein the abolition of idolatry 
both in religion and science, whether the object be a 
person, a book, or an institution, the form, the letter, or 
the rite, or matter itself, — to the end that God only may be 
worshipped- 

1 Joshua xv. 16-19. 



Preface. xxv 

3. The restoration of the doctrine of the Duality of the 
Divine Unity, or Original Being ; and therein the recog- 
nition of the essential divinity of both constituents of exist- 
ence, its life, or force, and its substance; with the result of 
removing matter from its wrongful position as an inde- 
pendent, self-subsistent entity, to its proper rank as a mode 
of the Divine Being, wherein it represents Spirit, by the 
power of the Divine Will projected into conditions and 
limitations, and made exteriorly cognisable. 

The restoration of this doctrine involves the deposition 
alike of Materialism, and the no less atheistic Manichaeanism 
also widely in vogue, in favour of that true Pantheism which, 
while it regards God as the all in all of Being, does not 
regard all Being as in the condition of God. 

4. The restoration of the true doctrine of Creation and 
Redemption by means of Evolution, (1) by re-establishing 
the doctrine of the permanence of the true Ego of the 
individual, and its persistence through all changes of 
exterior form and condition, thus positing as the subject of 
Evolution, an entity competent to retain the impressions, 
and to progress by means, of its experiences; and (2) by 
exhibiting one and the same method as that both of Crea- 
tion and of Redemption, the difference being only ot 
medium — or "vehicle" — and of direction ; inasmuch as 
the former occurs by a centrifugal operation in matter; 
and the latter by a centripetal operation in substance (or 
spirit), — a process which constitutes z/zvolutional evolution, 
both processes occurring in the same individual. Herein 
consists the reconciliation of science and religion, inasmuch 
as Redemption is thus the logical complement of Creation 
and outcome of Evolution, in that the process whereby it 
occurs- "hich is mystically called Regeneration — consists 
in the ^constitution of the individual by and of the higher 






xx vi u Clothed with the Sttn." 

elements of his own system, the Soul and Spirit, and — 
instead of dispensing with experience — is accomplished by 
means of the experiences acquired in a multiplicity of 
earth-lives, the number of which is determined by the 
exigencies of the individual case, their purpose being to 
afford the requisite opportunities for the " suffering" — which 
is felt experience — through which alone perfection, and 
thereby salvation, are attainable. 

The restoration of the doctrine of a multiplicity of earth- 
lives involves as its corollary that of the doctrine of acquired 
destiny, called by the Hindus "Karma." 1 

5. The interpretation of Christianity and of religion gener- 
ally, in such manner as to exhibit the identity of the r. 
and perceptions of the soul in all ages ; as well also as the 
identity of the theological doctrine of salvation by " vicarious 
atonement " with the mystical, but none the less scientific, 
doctrine of redemption by regeneration as defined in the 
foregoing paragraph. 

6. The solution of the problems of inspiration, prop]- 
and miracles, and the practical demonstration of the so-called 
supernatural as natural to man. in that it appertains, not to 
the superhuman, but to the higher human. 

7. The disclosure of the Christian engines as regards both 
the person of Jesus and the composition of the Gospels. 

8. The enlargement of Christian faith and practice by 
means of the restoration of the Gods to their due place in 
man's recognition and veneration ; and the combination of 
the Greek and Buddhist with the Christian ideals, thereby 
restoring to man the sense of beauty, joy, and hopefulness 
which comes of tfre recognition of the universal indwelling 
Divinity — (which is Greek) ; and providing a perk 

and rule in respect of things physical, intellectual, and moral 
1 See Appendix, " Definitions and Explanations." 



Preface. xxvii 

—(which is Buddhist), as the foundation for the higher, 
because more interior, spirituality (which is Christian). 

Going so far as do the illuminations in this book to 
realise the most sanguine anticipations of that "new birth 
of Esoteric Christianity, or new and higher religion in which 
philosophy, religion, and poetry shall be fused into a unity," 1 
to the full satisfaction of man's highest needs and aspira- 
tions, their lamented recipient, Anna Kingsford, must, 
sooner or later, be recognised by all competent judges, as 
having made at once to science, philosophy, morality, 
religion, and literature at large, and especially to that of 
our own country and language, a contribution of an order 
unique, unsurpassed, and in certain respects of supreme 
moment, unequalled and even unapproached. 

In the arrangement of the contents of this volume, the 
method followed is that of subordinating the chronological 
to the logical, and regulating the sequence in accordance 
with the mutual dependence of the subjects treated. It is 
on this principle that precedence is given to those illumina- 
tions which may best serve as the writer's personal credentials 
in respect of her mission. The second place is assigned 
to those which, in virtue of their being derived from Scrip- 
ture, and prophetic of precisely such an event in the world's 
spiritual history as to occur at this time, serve — at least for 
the faithful — to relieve the idea of a new revelation of any 
a priori improbability. The others — with the exception of 
Part II., which is arranged according to express instructions 
— follow in an order the rationale of which will be obvious 
to the intelligent reader. And all of the in are given as 
originally written down either by their recipient herself, 
or by myself acting as amanuensis, — a function which — 
1 Schelling. 



xxviii " Clothed with the Sun" 

as her sole associate in the spiritual task with which we 
were jointly charged — I alone exercised. It need hardly be 
added that, regarding as we did that task as a sacred one, 
and the highest that could devolve upon mortals, no pains 
were spared either to observe the conditions necessary for 
it, or to secure absolute accuracy in our relation of the 
" things seen and heard " in the prosecution of it. For the 
annotations and explanations— which are in accordance 
with the teaching received — I alone am responsible, that is, 
restricting the term "alone" to its ordinary acceptation. 

Concerning the hiatus in the "Hymns of the Gods ' ; in 
Part II., Mrs Kingsford wrote in her diary under date 
August 23, 1887, being the eleventh month of her last 
illness, and the seventh before its termination : — 

"I wish I knew whether I am to recover or not. It 
seems, judging from physical signs, as if I could not live 
long; but then strange things hap where prophetesses are 
concerned ! I am so sure that the prophecy is not finished, 
and that a vast amount of work remains to do which must 
be done by me or not at all, that I cannot but think the 
Gods will restore me in time. . . . 

" Why do not the Gods give me the three hymns which 
are yet wanting to their series? I have the hymns of 
Phoibos, of Hermes, of Aphrodite, of Dionysos, of Saturn. 
I yet want the hymns of Ares, Zeus, and Artemis. If 
these hymns be not given to me, they will never be given 
to any other. . . . 

'• I had hoped to have been one of the pioneers of the 
new awakening of the world. I had thought to have helped 
in the overthrow of the idolatrous altars and the purging 
of the temple ; and now I must die just as the day of battle 
dawns and the sound of the chariot wheels is heard. Is 
it, perhaps, all premature ? Have we thought the time 



Preface, xxix 

nearer than it really is ? Must I go, and sleep, and come 
again before the hour sounds? '" 2 

It remains only to add in regard to Part III. and the 
Appendix, that the references to my own experiences are 
admitted with great reluctance,, and in spite of every effort 
to deprive the book, not merely of a biographical character, 
but far more so of an autobiographical character. It was 
only on finding that the omission of such references would 
operate disadvantageously by mutilating or weakening the 
record — (as by leaving it to appear as if I were unable of 
my own knowledge to testify to the possibility of such 
experiences) — that I consented to renounce my design and 
strong preference in the matter. 

Edward Maitland. 

London, Whitsuntide, 1889. 

1 I cite this last paragraph as showing how small in her own view 
appeared the work which she accomplished as compared to that which 
remained, and which she felt she had it in her to accomplish were only 
time and strength allowed ; and also as showing the intensity of her 
realisation of its importance, as well as her conviction of the truth of the 
doctrine of a multiplicity of earth-lives. 



ILLUMINATIONS, 



PART THE FIRST. 



NO. I. 

CONCERNING THE THREE VEILS BETWEEN MAN 
AND GOD. 1 

A GOLDEN chalice, like those used in Catholic 
rites, but having three linings, was given to me 
in my sleep by an Angel. These linings, he told me, 
signified the three degrees of the heavens, — purity of 
life, purity of heart, and purity of doctrine. Im- 
mediately afterwards there appeared to me a great 
dome-covered temple, Moslem in style, and on the 
threshold of it a tall angel clad in white linen, who 
with an air of command was directing a party of men 
engaged in destroying and throwing into the street 
numerous crucifixes, bibles, prayer-books, altar- 
utensils, and other sacred emblems. As I stood 
watching, somewhat scandalised at the apparent 
sacrilege, a voice at a great height in the air, cried 
1 London, March 1881. 
A 



2 " Clothed with the Sun" 

with startling distinctness, " All the idols He shall 
utterly destroy ! " Then the same voice, seeming 
to ascend still higher, cried to me, "Come hither and 
see!" Immediately it appeared to me that I was 
lifted up by my hair and carried above the earth. 
And suddenly there arose in mid-air the apparition 
of a man of majestic aspect, in an antique garb, and 
surrounded by a throng of prostrate worshippers. 
At first the appearance of this figure was strange 
to me ; but while I looked intently at it, a change 
came over the face and dress, and I thought I 
recognised Buddha, — the Messiah of India. But 
scarcely had I convinced myself of this, when a great 
voice, like a thousand voices shouting in unison, 
cried to the worshippers : " Stand upright on your 
feet : — Worship God only ! " And again the figure 
changed, as though a cloud had passed before it, and 
now it seemed to assume the shape of Jesus. Again 
I saw the kneeling adorers, and again the mighty 
voice cried, "Arise! Worship God only!" The 
sound of this voice was like thunder, and I noted 
that it had seven echoes. Seven times the cry re- 
verberated, ascending with each utterance as though 
mounting from sphere to sphere. Then suddenly I 
fell through the air, as though a hand had been with- 
drawn from sustaining me : and again touching the 
earth, I stood within the temple I had seen in the 
first part of my vision. At its east end was a great 
altar, from above and behind which came faintly a 
white and beautiful light, the radiance of which was 
arrested and obscured by a dark curtain suspen 



The TJwee Veils between Man and God. 3 

from the dome before the altar. And the body of 
the temple, which, but for the curtain, would have 
been fully illumined, was plunged in gloom, broken 
only by the fitful gleams of a few half-expiring oil- 
lamps, hanging here and there from the vast cupola. 
At the right of the altar stood the same tall angel I 
had before seen on the temple threshold, holding in 
his hand a smoking censer. Then, observing that he 
was looking earnestly at me, I said to him : " Tell me, 
what curtain is this before the light, and why is the 
temple in darkness ? " And he answered, " This veil 
is not One, but Three ; and the Three are Blood, 
Idolatry, and the Curse of Eve. And to you it is 
given t.) withdraw them ; be faithful and courageous ; 
the time has come." Now the first curtain was red, 
and very heavy ; and with a great effort I drew it 
aside, and said, " I have put away the veil of blood 
from before Thy Face. Shine, O Lord God ! " But 
a voice from behind the folds of the two remaining 
coverings answered me, " I cannot shine, because of 
the idols." And lo, before mc a curtain of many 
colours, woven about with all manner of images, 
crucifixes, madonnas, Old and New Testaments, 
prayer-books, and other religious symbols, some 
strange and hideous like the idols of China and Japan, 
some beautiful like those of the Greeks and Christians. 
And the weight of the curtain was like lead, for it 
was thick with gold and silver embroideries. But 
with both hands I tore it away, and cried, " I have 
put away the idols from before Thy Face. Shine, O 
Lord God!" And now the light was clearer and 



4 " Clothed with the Sun" 

brighter. But yet before me hung a third veil, all of 
black ; and upon it was traced in outline the figure of 
four lilies on a single stem inverted, their cups 
opening downwards. And from behind this veil the 
voice answered me again, " I cannot shine, because of 
the curse of Eve." Then I put forth all my strength, 
and with a great will rent away the curtain, crying, 
" I have put away her curse from before Thee. Shine, 
Lord God !" 

And there was no more a veil, but a landscape, 
more glorious and perfect than words can paint, a 
garden of absolute beauty, filled with trees of palm, 
and olive, and fig, rivers of clear water and lawns of 
tender green ; and distant groves and forests framed 
about by mountains crowned with snow ; and on the 
brow of their shining peaks a rising sun, whose light 
it was I had seen behind the veils. And about the 
sun, in mid-air hung white misty shapes of great 
angels, as clouds at morning float above the place of 
dawn. And beneath, under a mighty tree of cedar, 
stood a white elephant, bearing in his golden houdah 
a beautiful woman robed as a queen, and wearing a 
crown. But while I looked, entranced, and longing 
to look for ever, the garden, the altar, and the temple 
were carried up from me into Heaven. Then as I 
stood gazing upwards, came again the voice, at first 
high in the air, but falling earthwards as I listened. 
And behold, before me appeared the white pinnacle 
of a minaret, and around and beneath it the sky was 
all gold and red with the glory of the rising sun. 
And I perceived that now the voice was that of a 






Concerning Inspiration and Prophesying. 5 

solitary Muezzin standing on the minaret with up- 
lifted hands and crying : — 

" Put away Blood from among you ! 
Destroy your Idols ! 
Restore your Queen ! " 

And straightway a voice, like that of an infinite multi- 
tude, coming as though from above and around and 
beneath my feet, — a voice like a wind rising upwards 
from caverns under the hills to their loftiest far-off 
heights among the stars, — responded — ■ 
u Worship God alone 1" 



No. II. 

Part i. 

concerning inspiration and prophesying. 1 

I HEARD last night in my sleep a voice speaking 
to me, and saying — 

1. You ask the method and nature of Inspiration, 
and the means whereby God revealeth the Truth. 

2. Know that there is no enlightenment from with- 
out : the secret of things is revealed from within. 

3. From without cometh no Divine Revelation: 
but the Spirit within beareth witness. 

4. Think not I tell you that which you know not : 
for except you know it, it cannot be given to you. 

5. To him that hath it is given, and he hath the 
more abundantly. 

1 Paris, February 7, 1880-. 



6 " Clothed with the Sun. n 

6. None is a prophet save he who knoweth : the 
instructor of the people is a man of many lives. 

7. Inborn knowledge and the perception of things, 
these are the sources of revelation : the soul of the man 
instructeth him, having already learned by experience. 

8. Intuition is inborn experience ; that which the 
soul knoweth of old and of former years. 

9. And Illumination is the Light of Wisdom, 
whereby a man perceiveth heavenly secrets. 

10. Which Light is the Spirit of God within the 
man, showing unto him the things of God. 

11. Do not think that I tell you anything you know 
not; all cometh from within: the Spirit that in- 
formeth is the Spirit of God in the prophet. 

12. What, then, you ask, is the Medium ; and how 
are to be regarded the utterances of one speaking in 
trance ? 

13. God speakcth through no man in the way you 
suppose ; for the Spirit of the Prophet beholdeth God 
with open eyes. If he fall into a trance, his 1 
are open, and his interior man knoweth what is 
spoken by him. 

14. But when a man speakcth that which he 
knoweth not, he is obsessed : an impure spirit, or one 
that is bound, hath entered into him. 

15. There are many such, but their words are as 
the words of men who know not : these are not 
prophets nor inspired. 

16. God obsesseth no mail ; God is revealed : and 
he to whom God is revealed speaketh that which he 
knoweth. 






Concerning Inspiration and Prophesying. J 

17. Christ Jesus * understandeth God: he knoweth 
that of which he beareth witness. 

18. But they who, being mediums, utter in trance 
things of which they have no knowledge, and of which 
their own spirit is uninformed : these are obsessed 
with a spirit of divination, a strange spirit, not their 
own. 

19. Of such beware, for they speak many lies, and 
are deceivers, working often for gain or for pleasure 
sake : and they are a grief and a snare to the faithful. 

20. Inspiration may indeed be mediumship, but it 
is conscious ; and the knowledge of the prophet in- 
structed him. 

21. Even though he speak in an ecstasy, he uttereth 
nothing that he knoweth not. 

22. Thou who art a prophet hast had many lives : 
yea, thou hast taught many nations, and hast stood 
before kings. 

23. And God hath instructed thee in the years that 
are past ; and in the former times of the earth. 

24. By prayer, by fasting, by meditation, by painful 
seeking, hast thou attained that thou knowest. 

25. There is no knowledge but by labour; there is 
no intuition but by experience. 

26. I have seen thee on the hills of the East : I 
have followed thy steps in the wilderness : I have 
seen thee adore at sunrise : I have marked thy night 
watches in the caves of the mountains. 

27. Thou hast attained with patience, O prophet! 
God hath revealed the truth to thee from within. 

1 Here implying the Christ Jesus within, or the regenerated human 
nature, in whomsoever occurring. 



" ClotJied with the Suit! 9 



Part 2. 



A PropJiecy of the Kingdom of the So?/ 1, mystically 
called the Day of the Woman. 

1. And now I show you a mystery and a new 
thing, which is part of the mystery of the fourth 
day of creation. 

2. The word which shall come to save the world, 
shall be uttered by a woman. 

3. A woman shall conceive, and shall bring forth 
the tidings of salvation. 

4. For the reign of Adam is at its last hour ; and 
God shall crown all things by the creation of Eve. 

5. Hitherto the man hath been alone, and hath 
had dominion over the earth. 

6. But when the woman shall be created, God shall 
give unto her the kingdom ; and she shall be first in 
rule and highest in dignity. 

7. Yea, the last shall be first ; and the elder shall 
serve the younger. 

8. So that women shall no more lament for their 
womanhood: but men shall rather say,"0 that we 
had been born women ! " 

9. For the strong shall be put down from their 
seat ; and the meek shall be exalted to their place. 

10. The days of the covenant of manifestation 
are passing away : the gospel of interpretation 
cometh. 

11. There shall nothing new be told; but that 
which is ancient shall be interpreted. 



A Prophecy. 9 

12. So that man the manifestor shall resign his 
office ; and woman the interpreter shall give light to 
the world. 

13. Hers is the fourth office : she revealeth that 
which the Lord hath manifested. 

14. Hers is the light of the heavens, and the 
brightest of the planets of the holy seven. 

15. She is the fourth dimension ; the eyes which 
enlighten ; the power which draweth inward to God. 

16. And her kingdom cometh ; the day of the 
exaltation of woman. 

17. And her reign shall be greater than the reign 
of the man : for Adam shall be put down from his 
place ; and she shall have dominion for ever. 

18. And she who is alone shall bring forth more 
children to God, than she who hath a husband. 

19. There shall no more be a reproach against 
women : but against men shall be the reproach. 

20. For the woman is the crown of man, and the 
final manifestation of humanity. 

21. She is the nearest to the throne of God, when 
she shall be revealed. 

22. But the creation of woman is not yet complete: 
but it shall be complete in the time which is at 
hand. 

23. All things are thine, O Mother of God : all 
things are thine, O Thou who risest from the sea ; 
and Thou shalt have dominion over all the worlds. 



to " Clot lud with the Sim." 



No. III. 

CONCERNING THE PROPHECY OF THE IMMACU- 
LATE CONCEPTION. 1 

I ST AND upon the sea-shore. The moon overhead 
is at the full. A soft and warm breath, like that of 
the summer wind, blows in my face. The aroma of 
it is salt with the breath of the sea. O Sea ! O Moon ! 
from you I shall gather what I seek ! You shall re- 
count to me the story of the Immaculate Conception 
of Maria, whose symbols ye are ! 

Allegory of stupendous significance! with which 
the Church of God has so long been familiar, but 
which yet never penetrated its understanding, like the 
holy fire which enveloped the sacred Bush, but which 
nevertheless, the Bush withstood and resisted. 

Yet has there been one who comprehended, and 
who interpreted aright the parable of the Immaculate 
Conception ; and he found it through US, by the light 
of his own intense love, for he was the disciple of love, 
and his name is still — the Beloved ; — John, the S 
of the Apocalypse. For he, in the vision of the 
woman clothed with the sun, set forth the true signifi- 
cance of the Immaculate Conception. For the Im- 

1 Paris, July 26, 1S77. Received in the night and written down 
under trance, the seeress being transported in spirit to the sea-side, but 
maintaining with the body a connection sufficient to enable her to 
write. The changes ol~ person from singular to plural are due to the 
overshadowing influence speaking at one time as a unity, and at another 
as a plurality. 






The Immaculate Conception. 1 1 

maculate Conception is none other than the prophecy 
of the means whereby the universe shall at last be 
redeemed. Maria — the sea of limitless space — Maria 
the Virgin, born herself immaculate and without spot, 
of the womb of the ages, shall in the fulness of time 
bring forth the perfect man, who shall redeem the race. 
He is not one man, but ten thousand times ten thou- 
sand, the Son of Man, who shall overcome the limita- 
tions of matter, and the evil which is the result of 
the materialisation of spirit. His Mother is spirit, 
his Father is spirit, yet he is himself incarnate ; and 
how then shall he overcome evil, and restore matter 
to the condition of spirit ? By force of love. It is 
love which is the centripetal power of the universe ; 
it is by love that all creation returns to the bosom of 
God. The force which projected all things is will, 
and will is the centrifugal power of the universe. 
Will alone could not overcome the evil which results 
from the limitations of matter ; but it shall be over- 
come in the end by sympathy, which is the knowledge 
of God in others, — the recognition of the omnipresent 
self. This is love. And it is with the children of 
the spirit, the servants of love, that the dragon of 
matter 'makes war. 

Now, whether or not the world be strong enough 
to bear this yet, we know not. This is not the first 
time we have revealed these things to men. An 
ancient heresy, cursed by the Church, arose out of a 
true inspiration ; for the disciples are ever weaker 
than the master, and they have not his spiritual 
discernment. I speak of the Gnostics. To the 



r 2 " Clothed with the Sun" 

Master of the Gnostics we revealed the truth of the 
Immaculate Conception. We told him that Im- 
manuel should be the God-Man who, transcending 
the limitations of matter, should efface the evil of 
materialisation by the force of love, and should see 
and hear and speak and feel as though he were pure 
spirit, and had annihilated the boundaries of matter. 
This, then, he taught ; but they who heard his 
teaching-, applying his words only to the individual 
Jesus, affirmed that Jesus had had no material body, 
but that he was an emanation of a spiritual nature ; 
an JEon who, without substance or true being in the 
flesh, had borne a phantom part in the world of men. 
Beware lest in like manner ye also are misread. It 
is so hard for men to be spiritual. It is as hard for 
us to declare ourselves without mystery. The Church 
knows not the source of its dogmas. We marvel also 
at the blindness of the hearers, who indeed hear, but 
who have not eyes to see. We speak in vain, — ye 
discern not spiritual things. Ye are so materialised 
that ye perceive only the material. The Spirit comes 
and goes ; ye hear the sound of its voice : but ye 
cannot tell whither it goeth nor whence it cometh. 



All that is true is spiritual. No dogma of the Church 
is true that seems to bear a physical meaning. For 
matter shall cease, and all that is of it, but the Word 
of the Lord shall remain for ever. And how shall it 
remain except it be purely spiritual ; since, when 
matter ceases, it would then be no longer compre- 
hensible? I tell you again, and of a truth, — no 
dogma is real that is not spiritual. If it be true, and 






Concerning Revelation. 1 3 

yet seem to you to have a material signification, know 
that you have not solved it. It is a mystery : seek 
its interpretation. That which is true, is for spirit 
alone. 



No. IV. 

CONCERNING REVELATION. 1 

ALL true and worthy illuminations are reveila- 
tions, or re-veilings. Mark the meaning of 
this word. There can be no true or worthy illumina- 
tion which destroys distances and exposes the details 
of things. 

Look at this landscape. Behold how its moun- 
tains and forests are suffused with soft and delicate 
mist, which half conceals and half discloses their 
shapes and tints. See how this mist like a tender 
veil enwraps the distances, and merges the reaches of 
the land with the clouds of heaven ! 

How beautiful it is, how orderly and wholesome its 
fitness, and the delicacy of its appeal to the eye and 
heart ! And how false would be that sense which 
should desire to tear away this clinging veil, to bring 
far objects near, and to reduce everything to fore- 
ground in which details only should be apparent, and 
all outlines sharply defined ! 

Distance and mist make the beauty of Nature : 

1 Home, November 27, 1883. Received in sleep. 



14 " Clothed with the Sun." 

and no poet would desire to behold her otherwise 
than through this lovely and modest veil. 

And as with exoteric, so with esoteric nature. The 
secrets of every human soul are sacred and known 
only to herself. The ego is inviolable, and its person- 
ality is its own right for ever. 

Therefore mathematical rules and algebraic formulae 
cannot be forced into the study of human lives; nor 
can human personalities be dealt with as though they 
were mere ciphers or arithmetical quantities. 

The soul is too subtle, too instinct with life and 
will for treatment such as this. 

One may dissect a corpse; one may analyse and 
classify chemical constituents ; but it is impossible to 
dissect or analyse any living thing. 

The moment it is so treated it escapes. Life is not 
subject to dissection. 

The opening of the shrine will always find it 
empty : the God is gone. 

A soul may know her own past, and may see in 
her own light : but none can see it for her if she see 
it not. 

Herein is the beauty and sanctity of person- 
ality. 

The ego is self-centered and not diffused ; for the 
tendency of all evolution is towards centralisation 
and individualism. 

And life is so various, and so beautifully diverse 
in its unit}-, that no hard and fast mathematical law- 
making can imprison its manifold ness. 

All is order : but the elements of this order har- 






Concerning Revelation, 1 5 



v> 



monise by means of their infinite diversities and 
gradations. 

The true mysteries remained always content with 
nature's harmony : they sought not to drag distances 
into foregrounds ; or to dissipate the mountain 
nebula, in whose bosom the sun is reflected. 

For these sacred mists are the media of light, and 
the glorifiers of nature. 

Therefore the doctrine of the mysteries is truly 
reveilation y — a veiling and a re-veiling of that which 
it is not possible for eye to behold without violating 
all the order and sanctities of nature. 

For distance and visual rays, causing the diversities 
of far and near, of perspective and mergent tints, of 
horizon and foreground, are part of natural order and 
sequence : and the law expressed in their properties 
cannot be violated. 

For no law is ever broken. 

The hues and aspects of distance and mist indeed 
may vary and dissolve according to the quality and 
quantity of the light which falls upon them : but 
they are there always, and no human eye can annul 
or annihilate them. 

Even words, even pictures are symbols and veils. 
Truth itself is unutterable, save by God to God. 



1 6 " Clothed with the Sun? 

No.V. 

concerning the interpretation of the 
mystical scriptures. 

Part i. 1 

u T F, therefore, they be Mystic Books, they ought 
JL also to have a Mystic Consideration. But the 
Fault of most Writers lieth in this, — that they dis- 
tinguish not between the Books of Moses the Prophet, 
and those Books which are of an historical Nature. 
And this is the more surprising because not a few 
of such Critics have rightly discerned the esoteric 
Character, if not indeed the true Interpretation, of 
the Story of Eden ; yet have they not applied to the 
Remainder of the Allegory the same Method which 
they found to fit the Beginning; but so soon as they 

1 Paris, June 6, 1878. Read in sleep, in a library purporting to be 
that of Emmanuel Swedenborg, in the spiritual world, Swedenborg 
himself being present. As we subsequently ascertained, it represents 
the doctrine o r that famous seer, but without his limitations. Like 
most of the writings thus beheld by the seeress, it was in German text 
and archaic spelling, and also, like several others, was given in 
immediate response to a mental request for light on the subjects treated, 
made by me without her knowledge either of my request or of my need, 
or being able of herself to have supplied the want. On seeking — also 
from transcendental sources — to know more respecting this experience, 
we received for answer that "a portion of Swedenborg is still in this 
sphere, through which he can communicate with those with whom he 
is in affinity ; " and that under his magnetism, the seeress had been 
enabled — as stated in the preface— to recover these recollections. The 
capitals of the original are retained, but the spelling is moder: 



The Mystical Scriptures. 1 7 

are over the earlier Stanzas of the Poem, they would 
have the Rest of it to be of another Nature. 

" It is, then, pretty well established and accepted of 
most Authors, that the Legend of Adam and Eve, 
and of the Miraculous Tree and the Fruit which was 
the Occasion of Death, is, like the story of Eros and 
Psyche, and so many others of all Religions, a 
Parable with a hidden, that is, with a Mystic 
Meaning. But so also is the Legend which follows 
concerning the Sons of these Mystical Parents, the 
Story of Cain and Abel his Brother, the Story of the 
Flood, of the Ark, of the saving of the clean and 
unclean Beasts, of the Rainbow, of the twelve Sons of 
Jacob, and, not stopping there, of the whole Relation 
concerning the Flight out of Egypt. For it is not to 
be supposed that the two Sacrifices offered to God by 
the Sons of Adam, were real Sacrifices, any more 
than it is to be supposed that the Apple which caused 
the Doom of Mankind, was a real Apple. It ought 
to be known, indeed, for the right Understanding of 
the Mystical Books, that in their esoteric Sense they 
deal, not with material Things, but with spiritual 
Realities ; and that as Adam is not a Man, nor Eve 
a Woman, nor the Tree a Plant in its true Significa- 
tion, so also are not the Beasts named in the same 
Books real Beasts, but that the Mystic Intention of 
them is implied. When, therefore, it is written that 
Abel took of the Firstlings of his Flock to offer unto 
the Lord, it is signified that he offered that which a 
Lamb implies, and which is the holiest and highest of 
spiritual Gifts. Nor is Abel himself a real Person, 

B 



1 8 " Clcthcd with the Sun." 

but the Type and spiritual Presentation of the Race 
of the Prophets ; of whom, also, Moses was a 
Member, together with the Patriarchs. Were the 
Prophets, then Shedders of Blood ? God forbid ; 
they dealt net with Things material, but with 
spiritual Significations. Their Lambs without Spot, 
their white Doves, their Goats, their Rams, and other 
sacred Creatures, arc so many Signs and Symbols of 
the various Graces and Gifts which a Mystic People 
should offer to Heaven. Without such Sacrifices is 
no Remission of Sin. But when the Mystic Sense 
was lost, then Carnage followed, the Prophets ceased 
out of the Land, and the Priests bore rule over the 
People. Then, when again the Voice of the Pro- 
phets arose, they were constrained to speak plainly, 
and declared in a Tongue foreign to their Method, 
that the Sacrifices of God are not the Flesh of Bulls 
or the Blood of Goats, but holy Vows and sacred 
Thanksgivings, their Mystical Counterparts. As God 
is a Spirit, so also are His Sacrifices Spiritual. What 
Foil}', what Ignorance, to offer material Flesh and 
Drink to pure Power and essential Being! Surely in 
vain have the Prophets spoken, and in vain have the 
Christs been manifested ! 

"Why will you have Adam to be Spirit and Fve 
Matter, since the Mystic Books deal only with spiritual 
Entities? The Tempter himself even is not Matter, 
but that which gives .Matter the Precedence. Adam 
is, rather, intellectual I^orce : he is of Earth. Eve is 
the moral Conscience : she is the Mother of the Liv- 
ing. Intellect, then, is the male, and Intuition the 



The Mystical Scrip hires. 19 

female Principle. And the Sons of Intuition, herself 
fallen, shall at last recover Truth and redeem all 
Things. By her Fault, indeed, is the moral Con- 
science of Humanity made subject to the intellectual 
Force, and thereby all Manner of Evil and Confusion 
abounds, since her Desire is unto him, and he rules 
over her until now. But the End foretold by the 
Seer is not far off. Then shall the Woman be exalted, 
clothed with the Sun, and carried to the Throne of 
God. And her Sons shalj make War with the Dragon, 
and have Victory over him. Intuition, therefore, pure 
and a Virgin, shall be the Mother and Redemptress of 
her fallen Sons, whom she bore under Bondage to her 
Husband the intellectual Force." 



Part 2. 

" Moses, therefore, knowing the Mysteries of the 
Religion of the Egyptians, and having learned of their 
Occultists the Value and Signification of all sacred 
Birds and Beasts, delivered like Mysteries to his own 
People. But certain of the sacred Animals of Egypt 
he retained not in Honour, for Motives which were 
equally of Mystic Origin. And he taught his Initiated 
the Spirit of the heavenly Hieroglyphs, and bade 
them, when they made Festival before God, to carry 
with them in Procession, with Music and with Danc- 

1 This portion, which was received, also in sleep, two nights after 
the foregoing, is a part remembered of a lecture — evidently out of the 
same book — delivered by a man in priestly garb, in an amphitheatre of 
white stone, to a class of students, of whom the seeress was one. 



20 " Clothed with the Sim.* 9 

ing, such of the sacred Animals as were, by their 
interior Significance, related to the Occasion. Now, 
of these Beasts, he chiefly selected Males of the first 
Year, without Spot or Blemish, to signify that it is 
beyond all Things needful that Man should dedicate 
to the Lord his Intellect and his Reason, and this 
from the Beginning, and without the least Reserve. 
And that he was very wise in teaching this, is evi- 
dent from the History of the World in all Ages, 
and particularly in these last days. For what is it 
that has led Men to renounce the Realities of the 
Spirit, and to propagate false Theories and corrupt 
Sciences, denying all Things save the Appearance 
which can be apprehended by the outer Senses, and 
making themselves one with the Dust of the Ground? 
It is their Intellect which, being unsanctified, has led 
them astray; it is the Force of the Mind in them, 
which, being corrupt, is the Cause. of their own Ruin, 
and of that of their Disciples. As, then, the Intellect 
is apt to be the great Traitor against Heaven, so also 
is it the Force by which Men, following their pure 
Intuition, may also grasp and apprehend the Truth. 
For which Reason it is written that the Christs are 
subject to their Mothers. Xot that by any means 
the Intellect is to be dishonoured; for it is the Heir 
of all Things, if only it be truly begotten and be 
no Bastard. . 

" And besides all these Symbols, Moses taught the 
People to have beyond all Things an Abhorrence of 
Idolatry. What, then, is Idolatry, and what are False 
Gods? 



The Mystical Scriptures. 2 1 

• To make an Idol is to materialise spiritual Mys- 
teries. The Priests, then, were Idolaters, who coming 
after Mosej, and committing to Writing those Things 
which he by Word of Mouth had delivered unto 
Israel, replaced the true Things signified, by their 
material Symbols, and shed innocent Blood on the 
pure Altars of the Lord. 

" They also are Idolaters who understand the 
Things of Sense where the Things of the Spirit are 
alone implied, and who conceal the true Features of 
the Gods with material and spurious Presentations. 
Idolatry is Materialism, the common and original Sin 
of Men, which replaces Spirit by Appearance, Sub- 
stance by Illusion, and leads both the moral and intel- 
lectual Being into Error, so that they substitute the 
Nether for the Upper, and the Depth for the Height. 
It is that false Fruit which attracts the outer Senses, 
the Bait of the Serpent in the Beginning of the 
World. Until the Mystic Man and Woman had 
eaten of this Fruit, they knew only the Things of the 
Spirit, and found them suffice. But after their Fall, 
they began to apprehend Matter also, and gave it the 
Preference, making themselves Idolaters. And their 
Sin, and the Taint begotten of that false Fruit, have 
corrupted the Blood of the whole Race of Men, 
from which Corruption the Sons of God would have 
redeemed them," 



22 



M Clothed with the Sun." 



No. VI. 



CONCERNING THE MOSAIC COSMOGONY. 1 



THE opening- chapters of Genesis have, in some of 
their applications, a reference to the Mysteries. 
The following are some of their manifold mean- 
ings. 

In the first chapter (and beginning of the second) 
is related the creation of human nature in its two 
divisions, intellect and intuition, body and soul, 
man and woman, each creation occurring by develop- 
ment or evolution out of lower forms, through the 
successive incarnations of the individual. 

In the second chapter (beginning at verse 4) is 
described humanity (or Adam), male and female, in 
a state of mere intellectualism or external reason, and 
before the advent of revelation or religious percep- 
vion. Here the allegory refers to the race and to the 
individual alike, and treats of man as sense and soul, 
priest and prophet, world and church. 

The Tree of Life is the Central Will or Divine 
Life, the God, that is, whether of the universe or of 
the individual. And the Tree of Knowledge is ex- 
perience which comes of trespass, or a descent from 
the region of spirit to that of matter. It is thus 
Maya, or illusion ; and the serpent, or tempter, is the 
impulse by yielding to which the inward reality of 

1 Boulogne, August 1SS0. Received in sleep. 



Concerning the Mosaic Cosmogony. 23 

Being is abandoned for the outward appearance, and 
idolatry is committed through the preference of the 
symbol to the verity, of the form to the substance, 
The phrase " coats of skin " implies a deeper descent 
into materiality, and the consequent need of multi- 
plied penances and transmigrations. 

The Tree of Life signifies also the secret of re- 
generation, or final transmutation into pure spirit, 
and the consequent attainment of eternal life, which 
can come only when all the necessary processes have 
been performed, and the soul — Eve — is once more 
pure and free, when she becomes " Mary." 

In the Mysteries the Adam of the second chapter 
signifies also the ordinary earth-man, devoid of 
spiritual perception or consciousness, and unable, 
therefore, at all to comprehend the mysteries. And 
Eve signifies the seer and prophet, who, being illu- 
minated in soul and taught of the Spirit, has in his 
keeping the knowledge of things sacred, but is on no 
account to divulge that knowledge to the outer world 
of mankind at large. Springing from the heart of 
humanity, when its outer sense and reason and pas- 
sions are laid in sleep, or mystic trance, Eve is the 
Sibyl, or " Mother," who has the sacred tree in charge, 
but may not communicate of it. But being tempted 
by the prospect of sensuous reward, she yields to the 
serpent of matter — or astral impulses — and communi- 
cates the Mysteries to the vulgar, and thereby loses 
her supremacy over men, and from being their 
mistress and ruler, becomes their slave, while the 
prophets, her offspring, are persecuted and slain, so 



24 " Clothed with the Stm" 

that all her revelations and proper ministrations are 
made in pain and sorrow and labour. For it is 
characteristic of the vulgar, that they reverence only 
what is unfamiliar and mysterious to them. 

The Four Rivers springing from one source are the 
four elements which enter into the composition 
alike of the whole and the part, the universe, the 
planet, the individual, and the single (physiological) 
cell. Together they constitute the fourfold being. 
Pison, which surrounds and encloses the earth or 
mineral zone, and contains the materials of wealth 
and fame, is the body, or material region. Gihon, 
the river which runs through the land of burning, 
denotes the Vale of Gehenna or purgatorial region, 
and is the " fiery body," the magnetic belt between 
the body and the soul. Hiddekel, the river with the 
double symbol of Two Languages, is that which leads 
back to the ancient time and place of the soul's 
" innocence." For, being representative of the soul, 
it occupies the soul's place between the material and 
the spiritual part. The last is called the Euphrates, 
and implies the innermost and highest, the Spirit, or 
Will. These four " rivers " go forth into and con- 
stitute the whole universe, and all therein that is of a 
fourfold nature. A portion of each is necessary to 
constitute a molecule, or monad, of the substance of 
creation, whether a planet, a man, or a cell. For the 
cell is the type of the kosmos. 

I^ow the signification of the Rivers of Eden is four- 
fold, denoting, First, the four generations of the soul's 
evolution, individually and collectively. 



Concerning the Fall. 25 

Secondly, The four stages of the soul's initiation 
and perfectionment. 

Thirdly, The four interpretations of Scripture. 

Fourthly, The four elemental spheres of nature in 
which the soul has its generation and education. 



No. VII. 

CONCERNING THE FALL. 1 

THE friend with whom I was staying having 
asked me to obtain for her, if possible, while 
in her house a precise and practical instruction on 
this subject, I found myself surrounded in my sleep 
by a group of spirits, who conversed together upon 
it evidently for my benefit. They began by saying 
that all the mistakes made about the Bible arise out 
of the mystic books being referred to times, places, 
and persons material, instead of being regarded as 
containing only eternal verities about things spiritual. 
The opening chapters of the sacred books, they said, 
exhibit the meaning and object of religion, and the 
method of salvation. They are an epitome of the 
whole Bible, a kind of argument prefixed to the 
divine drama of the spiritual history of man. 

The key to their interpretation is to be found in 
the word Now. There is no past in the Divine 
Mind, no future in the Divine Economy. To each 

1 Paris, July 29, 1880. 



26 " Clothed with the Sun" 

is one thing forbidden under penalty of death. This 
one thing is disobedience to the Divine Will. 
Death is the natural and inevitable result of rebellion 
against the Central Will, which is the Tree of Life. 
Death ensues in the body when the central will of 
the system no longer binds in harmony the com- 
ponent elements of the body. And death ensues 
in the soul when it is no longer desirous of union with 
the Divine Will. Wherefore disobedience and rebel- 
lion are death. But to desire ardently that which God 
wills, and to give oneself even to the death to fulfil 
God's Will, is life. For "he who will find his life 
shall lose it;" which means that he who seeks his own 
in opposition to the Divine Will, shall perish. "And 
he who loses his life, shall find it;" which means that 
he who giveth himself to die death to fulfil the 
Divine Will, shall have — nay, already hath — eternal 
life. 

Now, the injunction laid on every human soul is, 
not to disobey the Divine Will. For, in the day that 
the soul wilfully oppoies itself to God, she shall 
surely die. This means that the natural death or 
dissolution of the body shall, in such case, entail the 
dissolution and dispersion of the soul. For the 
Divine Breath, or Spirit, is the central iife of the 
human soul, or true man ; and if the elements of this 
personality be no longer bound in obedience to the 
Divine Fire, they will become dissolved and dis- 
persed in the void, and so the individual perish. 
"Dying., thou shalt die." The rebellious Adam hath 
not eternal life. Death in the body is for him death 



Concerning the Fall. 2 7 

in the soul. The soul is a purer and finer essence 
than the mere matter of the body. But when she is 
rebellious, and her elements are no longer bound to 
their central fire, they continue, after the death of 
the body, to disunite and disintegrate, until, at length, 
the Holy Spirit being withdrawn, the soul dissolves 
into the void and is no more. This is eternal death. 
On the other hand, the soul redeemed by obedience 
to the Divine Will, withdraws itself, and aspires ever 
more and more to its centre, until — absorbed therein 
— it becomes like unto God, wholly spiritual. This 
is eternal life. 

Now, "the Gift of God is eternal life through 
Christ Jesus our Lord." " For, as in the earthly and 
rebellious Adam we die; so in the Christ we are 
made alive for evermore." That is, that inasmuch as 
by disobedience to the Divine Will the soul brings 
on itself dissolution and eternal death ; so, when it is 
regenerate and strives continually to attain the Christ 
nature, it obtains thereby eternal life. For it arises 
necessarily out of the law of the universe that nothing 
can continue to exist which is out of harmony with 
the Divine Central Will. Now, the nature which is 
in most perfect harmony with the Divine Will is the 
Christ-nature. Wherefore, of the redeemed universe 
the perfect chord is, Thy Will be done. 

But had it been permitted to the rebellious and 
fallen Adam, after his act of disobedience in 
plucking and eating of the forbidden fruit, to " put 
forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and 
to live for ever," the result would have been an eternal 



28 " Clothed with the Su 



11. 



hell. For then the soul would have continued to 
exist for ever while in a state of separation by dis- 
obedience from God, and while insulting and defying 
God. Such division of the universe against itself 
would have involved its destruction, — a catastrophe 
which can by no possibility occur. And the condition 
would have involved the soul in a perpetual hell of 
misery ; wherefore, in merciful arrest of such a doom, 
God drove out the fallen soul from the reach of 
eternal life. But even while doing so, God pro- 
nounced the words of hope and redemption. For 
with the curse comes the promise, " Adam falling, 
Christ redeems." 

For the soul having accomplished the act of dis- 
obedience, has its " eyes opened." And it now 
perceives that alone and divorced from the Divine 
Will it is " wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 
blind, and naked," as said of the Church of Laodicea 
in the Apocalypse ; and Adam, knowing he is fallen, 
" hides " himself. For apart from God, Who is its 
life, the soul is nothing. And this knowledge of her 
shameful' condition is all the soul gains by rebellion. 
And so the lesson to the soul is this: — If thou 
disunite thyself from God and make thy desire 
earthwards, thou art as the dust of the ground, and 
must die the death of the body. But if thou desire 
only God, and make God's law thy will, and its 
accomplishment thy delight, thou becomest as Gcd, 
and hast eternal life. 



Concerning the PropJucy of the Deluge. 29 
No. VIII. 

CONCERNING THE PROPHECY OF THE DELUGE. 1 

WHEN reading this morning the work of Eliphas 
Levi on " Magic," I came upon the following 
sentence : — " In the Zohar, one of the chief books of 
the holy Kabbala, it is written, ' The Magic Serpent, 
son of the Sun, was about to devour the World, when 
the Sea, daughter of the Moon, put her foot on his 
head and crushed him.' " 

At this instant a writing was presented to my 
spiritual eyes, in which I read the following ex- 
planation of the Deluge of Noah : — 

" The Flood came," says the Scripture, " and swept 
away the wicked." The Flood, therefore, is not the 
wickedness itself, as some have supposed, but that 
which destroyed wickedness, and bore the righteous 
unharmed on its bosom. The Flood is Aphrodite 
the Sea-queen and Maria the Star of the Sea ; or, as 
the name signifies, Sea-salt, or Bitterness of the Deep. 
" The Woman shall crush the head of the Serpent." 
Maria, the God-woman, or feminine presentation of 
the supreme power and goodness, delivers mankind 
and destroys evildoers. She is the Water of Regen- 
eration ; the Sea through which, as Paul the Mystic 
says, we must all pass. She was in the beginning, 
because she is God, and the Spirit of God, or Divine 
Cloud, dwelt upon her. "We all passed through the 

1 Paris. September 28, 187S. 



3<D " Clothed with the Sun" 

Sea and through the Cloud." Jesus the Saviour went 
down into her, and received in her His chrism, while 
at the same time the Divine Hermes overshadowed 
Him. 

Maria the Sea is the water mystically appointed for 
the washing away of Sin. Therefore as the Flood 
she purifies the world, and bears on her immaculate 
breast the Ark of the Divine Covenant which con- 
tains the Elect." 1 

And when I had read this, it was impressed on my 
mind as a prophecy having special significance for 
the present age. 



No. IX. 

CONCERNING THE PROPHECY OF THE BOOK OF 
ESTHER.' 

THE most important book in the Bible fcr you 
to study now, and that most nearly about to be 
fulfilled, is one of the most mystic books in the Old 
Testament, the book of Esther. 

This book is a mystic prophecy, written in the form 
of an actual history. If I give you the key, the clue 

1 Like Eve, Maria and the Sea are mystical synonyms for the S 
which is called " Bitterness of the Deep" because — consisting of the 
universal substance- she attains her perfection through painful experi- 
ence. Concerning Hermes, see Part II., Nos. XII. and XIII., (6). 

- Paris, Easter Sunday, 1S60. Repeated from dictation heard 
interiorly while in trance. 



The Book of Esther. 3 1 

of the thread of it, it will be the easiest thing in the 
world to unravel the whole. 

The great King Assuerus, who had all the world 
under his dominion, and possessed the wealth of all 
the nations, is the genius of the age. 

Queen Vasthi, who for lier disobedience to the king 
was deposed from her royal seat, is the orthodox 
Catholic Church. 

The Jews, scattered among the nations under the 
dominion of the king, are the true Israel of God. 

Mardochi the Jew represents the spirit of intuitive 
reason and understanding. 

His enemy Aman, is the spirit of materialism, 
taken into the favour and protection of the genius 
of the age, and exalted to the highest place in the 
world's councils after the deposition of the orthodox 
religion. 

Now Aman has a wife and ten sons. 

Esther — who, under the care and tuition of Mar- 
dochi, is brought up pure and virgin — is that spirit 
of love and sympathetic interpretation which shall 
redeem the world. 

I have told you that it shall be redeemed by a 
"woman." 

Now the several philosophical systems by which 
the councillors of the age propose to replace the 
dethroned Church, are one by one submitted to the 
judgment of the age; and Esther, coming last, shall 
find favour. 

Six years shall she be anointed with oil of myrrh, 
that is, with study and training severe and bitter, 



32 u Clothed with the Sun." 

that she may be proficient in intellectual knowledge, 
as must all systems which seek the favour of the age. 

And six years with sweet perfumes, that is with 
the gracious loveliness of the imagery and poetry 
of the faiths of the past, that religion may not be 
lacking in sweetness and beaut)-. 

But she shall not seek to put on any of those 
adornments of dogma, or of mere sense, which, by 
trick of priestcraft, former systems have used to gain 
power or favour with the world and the age, and for 
which they have been found wanting. 

Now there come out of the darkness and the storm 
which shall arise upon the earth, two dragons. 

And they fight and tear each other, until there 
arises a star, a fountain of light, a queen, who is 
Esther. 

I have given you the key. Unlock the meaning of 
all that is written. 

I do not tell you if in the history of the past these 
voices had part in the world of men. 

If they had, guess now who were Mardochi and 
Esther. 

But I tell you that which shall be in the days about 
to come. 1 



1 The name E>ther — which is one with Faster— denotes a star, or 
fountain of light, a dawn or rising. The feast of Purim. instituted in 
token of the deliverance wrought through Esther, coincides in date with 
Easter. In the Protestant Bible the later portion of the Book of Esther 
is placed in the Apocrypha. The spelling Jollowed is that of the Douay 
version. The penultimate sentence obviously refers to the work in 
which we were engaged, but not necessarily to the workers themselves. 
The two dragons are materialism and superstition ^see Preface). 






The Vision of Nebuchadnezzar. 33 



No. X. 

CONCERNING THE PROPHECY OF THE VISION OF 
NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 1 

THE King Nebuchadnezzar is mystically identical 
with king Assuerus, in that each alike denotes 
the spirit of the latter age, that, namely, of mere 
Intellectualism, as distinguished from and opposed to 
Intuitionalism. And both narratives, as well also 
as that of the Deluge and of the book of Esther, 
are prophecies which now are beginning to have 
their accomplishment on a scale greater than ever 
before. For, the image shown to the king in his 
dream represents the various systems of thought 
and belief which find favour with the world. Ot 
these the intellectual philosophy which rests upon 
the basis of a science merely physical, is the head, 
and is symbolised by the gold. And this rightly, so 
far as concerns the intellect ; for it is indeed king of 
kings, and all the children of men, the beasts of the 
field, and the birds of the air, are given into its 
hands. This is to say, all the activities of society, 
its learning, its industry, and its art, are made 
subordinate to the intellect. The breast and arms 
of the image are of silver. This is the domain 
of morality and sentiment, which under the reign 
r*( the mere intellect hold a subordinate place. 
Belonging to the region of the heart, it is feminine \ 

1 London, February 22, 1881. Received in sleep. 

c 



34 " Clothed with the Sun." 

and implying the intuition, which is of the woman, 
and her assigned inferiority, it is of silver. The 
thighs and the belly are of brass, and this kingdom 
is said to rule over the whole world. By this is 
meant the universality under a regime wholly 
animal and non-moral, of falsehood, cruelty, impurity, 
blasphemy, and all those deprivations of the true 
humanity, which characterise an age of materialism. 
The iron of which the legs are made, represents 
force, and denotes the negation of love, and the 
consequent prevalence of might over right, and the 
universal rule of selfishness. By the mingling of 
iron and clay in the feet is implied the weakness 
and instability of the whole structure, the clay 
representing matter, which is made the foundation 
of the system instead of spirit, which alone is stable 
and enduring. 

The Stone cut out without hands, which destroys 
this image, and becomes a great mountain fining the 
whole earth, is that "Stone of the Philosopher- 
perfected spirit, and the true gospel of the inner 
knowledge which appertains thereto. This it is 
which smites the age upon its feet, or fundamental 
basis, its materialistic hypothesis. And with the 
demonstration of the falseness of its doctri 
being made to the world, shall fall the whole fabric 
of society, with its empire of force, its exaltation of 
the masculine mode of the mind, its subject 
of women, its torture of animals, and its op 
of the poor. With its clay, its iron, its 1 
silver, and its gold, all swept away as chaff by 



The Time of the End. 35 

the wind, the true knowledge and spirit of under- 
standing which are of the intuition, shall usher 
in the kingdom of God, and the " stone," become 
a mountain, shall fill the whole earth. 



No. XL 

CONCERNING THE PROPHECY OF THE TIME OF 
THE END. 1 

AS there was a return of the spirit, or angel, of 
Elias in the person of John the Baptist before 
the advent of Jesus, so there will be a return of the 
angel of Daniel, before the next manifestation of the 
Christ. Daniel's angel is he who specially foretold 
the culmination and the hour of overthrow of the 
world's materialistic system. And when he had com- 
pleted his prediction he told Daniel that he — Daniel 
— should rest for the present, but when the time was 
accomplished and the end was at hand, he should 
return and stand again in his place, and prophesy 
before the world. And the token whereby the ap- 
proach of the end should be known would be the 
spectacle of the " abomination of desolation standing 
in the holy place." A like assurance was given also 
to John. Now, the holy place is always — whether in 
the universal or the individual, in the macrocosm or 
the microcosm — the place of God And the Soul ; and 

1 See note on next page but one. 



36 " Clothed with the S?in" 

the abomination of desolation, or which maketh 
desolate, is that system of thought which, putting 
matter in the chief place, and making it the source, 
substance, and object of existence, abolishes God out 
of the universe, and the soul out of man, and thus, 
depriving existence of its light and life, makes it 
empty, desolate and barren, a very abomination of 
desolation. 

Jesus, recalling this prophecy, and citing the words 
of Daniel's angel, also foretold the same event as 
marking the end of that " adulterous " generation [a 
term identical with idolatrous as denoting the worship 
of and illicit association with matter], and the coming 
of the kingdom of God ; and warned the elect in 
mystic phrase, thus to be interpreted : — 

"When, therefore, ye shall see matter exalted to 
the holy place o( God and the soul, and made the all 
and in all of existence; 

41 Then let the spiritual Israel betake themsel 
the hills where alone salvation is to be found, even the 
heights and fastnesses of the divine life. 

" And let him who has overcome the body, beware 
lest he return to the love of the flesh, or seek the things 
of the world. 

" Neither let him who is freed from the body, 
become again re-incarnate. 

"And woe to the soul whose travail is yet unac- 
complished, and which has not yet become weaned 
from the body. 

"And beseech God that these things rind you not 









The Time of the End. 37 

at a season either of spiritual depression and feeble- 
ness, or of spiritual repose and unwatchfulness. 

u For the tribulation shall be without parallel ; 

" And such that except those days shall be few in 
number, escape from the body, would be impossible. 

" But for the elect's sake they shall be few. 

" And if any shall then declare that here, or there, 
the Christ has appeared as a person, believe it not. 
For there shall arise delusive apparitions and mani- 
festations, together with great signs and marvels, such 
as might well deceive even the elect. Remember, I 
have told you beforehand. Wherefore, if they shall 
say unto you, Behold he is in the desert, whether of 
the East or of the West, — join him not. Or, Behold 
he is in darkened rooms and secret assemblies, — pay 
no regard. 

" For, like lightning coming out of the East and 
illuminating the West, so shall be the world's spiritual 
awakening to the recognition of the Divine in 
Humanity. 

" But wheresoever the dead carcase of error remains, 
around it, like vultures, will gather both deceivers and 
deceived. 1 

" And upon them, the profane, there shall be dark- 

1 The foregoing part of this utterance was received at Paris, Decem- 
ber 6, 1879, in sleep, the inspiring influence impressing itself upon the 
seeress as being the angel Gabriel, — a circumstance which caused 
some perplexity — her usual instructor being Hermes ( = Raphael)— until 
it was remembered that Gabriel was the inspiring angel of Daniel, 
whose return had been foretold. The remainder was received under 
waking illumination in July 1886, while preparing the second edition 
of " The Perfect Way," in which it appeared. 



3% " Clothed with the Sun" 

ness ; the Spirit shall be quenched and the soul 
extinct; and there shall be no more any light in 
heaven, or in heavenly science any truth and mean- 
ing. And the power of heaven upon men shall be 
shaken. 

"Then shall appear the new sign, the Man in 
Heaven, upon the rain-clouds of the last chrism and 
mystery, with great power and glory. 

"And his missioners shall gather the elect with a 
great voice, from the four winds and from the farthest 
bounds of heaven. 

" Behold the Fig-Tree, and learn her parable. 
When the branch thereof shall become tender, and 
her buds appear, know that the day of God is upon 
you." 

Wherefore, then, saith the Lord that the budding 
of the fig-tree shall foretell the end ? 

Because the fig-tree is the symbol of the divine 
woman, as the vine of the divine man. 

The fig is the similitude of the matrix, containing 
inward buds, bearing blossoms on its placenta, and 
bringing forth fruit in darkness. It is the cup of 
life, and its flesh is the seed-ground of new births. 

The stems of the rig-tree run with milk : her 
leaves are as human hands, like the leaves of her 
brother the vine. 

And when the fig-tree shall bear rigs, then shall 
be the second advent, the new sign oi~ the man 
bearing water, and the manifestation of the virgin- 
mother crowned. 



The Time of the End. 39 

For when the Lord would enter the holy city, to 
celebrate his Last Supper with his disciples, he sent 
before him the fisherman Peter to meet the man of 
the coming sign. 

" There shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of 
water." 

Because, as the Lord was first manifest at a wine- 
feast in the morning, so must he consummate his 
work at a wine-feast in the evening. 

It is his Pass-Over ; for thereafter the sun must 
pass into a new sign. 

After the Fish, the Water-Carrier ; but the Lamb 
of God remains always in the place of victory, being 
slain from the foundation of the world. 

For his place is the place of the sun's triumph. 

After the vine the fig ; for Adam is first formed, 
then Eve. 

And because our Lady is not yet manifest, our 
Lord is crucified. 

Therefore came he vainly seeking fruit upon the 
fig-tree, " for the time of figs was not yet." 

And from that day forth, because of the curse 
of Eve, no man has eaten fruit of the fig-tree. 

For the inward understanding has withered away, 
there is no discernment any more in men. They 
have crucified the Lord because of their ignorance, 
not knowing what they did. 

Wherefore, indeed, said our Lord to our Lady: — 
" Woman, what is between me and thee ? For even 
my hour is not yet come." 

Because until the hour of the man is accomplished 



40 " Clothed with the Stm." 

and fulfilled, the hour of the woman must be 
deferred. 

Jesus is the vine; Mary is the fig-tree. And the 
vintage must be completed and the wine trodden out, 
or e^er the harvest of the figs be gathered. 

. But when the hour of our Lord is achieved, hang- 
ing on his Cross, he gives our Lady to the faithful. 

The chalice is drained, the lees are wrung out: 
then says he to his elect : — "Behold thy Mother!" 

But so long as the grapes remain unpluckcd, the 
vine has nought to do with the fig- tree, nor Jesus 
with Mary. 

He is first revealed, for he is the Word ; afterwards 
shall come the hour of its interpretation. 

And in that day every man shall sit under the 
vine and the fig-tree ; the dayspring shall arisj in 
the orient, and the fig-tree shall bear her fruit. 1 

For, from the beginning, the fig-leaf covered 
the shame of incarnation, because the riddle of 
existence can be expounded only by him who has 
the woman's secret. It is the riddle of the Sphinx. 

Look for that tree which alone of all trees bears 
a fruit blossoming interiorly, in concealment, and 
thou shalt discover the fig. 

Look for the sufficient meaning of the manifest 
universe and of the written Word, and thou shalt 
find only their mystical sense. 

Cover the nakedness of matter and o( nature with 
the fig-leaf, and thou hast hidden all their shame. 
For the fig is the interpreter. 

1 Zoch. iii. 10; Mic iv. 4; Cant. i:. 13. 






Concerning the Soul. 4 1 

So when the hour of interpretation comes, and the 
fig-tree puts forth her buds, know that the time of 
the end and the dawning of the new day are at 
hand, — " even at the doors." 



No. XII. 

CONCERNING THE SOUL: 
its Origin, Nature, and Potentialities} 

THE Soul, in its first beginning, is not something 
added to the body, but is generated in the 
body by the polarisation of the astral elements. Once 
generated, it enters and passes through many bodies, 
until finally perfected. 

As there are two of the outer, so also of the inner. 
The two of the inner are spirit and soul. In the 
translation of the Scriptures the word spirit is often 
used where soul is meant. For only the man created 
in God's own image is a living soul, that is, a soul 
which has the Spirit superadded to it. 2 

The clearest understanding may be obtained of 
the soul by denning it as the divine idea. Before 
anything can exist outwardly and materially, the 
idea of it must subsist in the Divine Mind. The 

1 London. Spoken in trance at different times in the spring of 1S81. 

2 Spirit, being the substance of all things, is in all things, but does 
not become the Spirit until, bum being diffuse and abstract, it becomes, 
by polarisation, concentrate and formulate,— from heal becoming (lame. 



42 " Clothed with the Sun" 

soul, therefore, may be understood to be divine and 
everlasting in its nature. But the soul does not act 
directly upon matter. It is put forth by the Divine 
Mind ; but the body is put forth by the sideral 
or fiery body. As the spirit on the celestial plane 
is the parent of the soul, so the fire on the material 
plane begets the body. 

The soul, being in its nature eternal, passes from 
one form to another until, in its highest stage, it 
polarises sufficiently to receive the spirit. It is in 
all organised things. Nothing of an organic nature 
exists without a soul. It is the individual, and 
it perishes if abandoned of the spirit. 

As already said, at the moment when the soul 
appears in any hitherto inorganic entity, it is by 
means of the convergence of the magnetic poles of the 
constituent molecules of that entity. The focusing 
of these poles gives rise to a circular magnetic 
current, and an electric combustion is the result 
This vital spark is organic life, or the soul. This 
spontaneous combustion, or generation, is not a new 
creation ; for nothing can be either added to or 
withdrawn from the universe. It is but a new- 
condition of the one substance. The soul is to 
the material organ what the tune is to the musical 
instrument. The tune subsists in the mind of the 
composer (God), before the keys or strings of the 
instrument can give it expression. But unless for 
this expression it could not become manifest to 
sense. This tune can be played on many instruments, 
and transferred from one to another. We are thus 



Concerning the Soul. 43 

brought to the great facts, the immortality of the 
soul, its transmigrations, and the metempsychosis. 

The process of incarnation, and the method by 
which the soul takes new forms, are in this wise. 
When two persons ally themselves in the flesh and 
beget a child, the moment of impregnation is usually 
— though not invariably — the moment which attaches 
a soul to the newly conceived body. Hence, much 
depends upon the influences, astral and magnetic, 
under which impregnation and conception take place. 
The pregnant woman is the centre of a whirl of mag- 
netic forces, and she attracts within her sphere a soul 
whose previous conduct and odic condition corre- 
spond either to her own or to the magnetic influences 
under which she conceives. This soul, if the pregnancy 
continues and progresses, remains attached to her 
sphere, but does not enter the embryo until the time 
of quickening, when it usually takes possession of the 
body, and continues to inhabit it until the time of 
delivery. A pregnant woman is swayed not by her 
own will alone, but as often by the will of the soul 
newly attached to her sphere; and the opposition and 
cross-magnetisms of these two wills often occasion 
many strange and seemingly unaccountable whims, 
alternations of character, and longings, on the part of 
the woman. Sometimes, however, the moment of 
impregnation or conception passes without attracting 
any soul, and the woman may even carry a false 
conception for some time, in which cases abortion 
occurs. There are innumerable accidents which may 
happen in this regard. Or, the soul, which has been 



44 " Clothed with the Sun" 

attracted to her, may, under new influences, be with- 
drawn from her sphere, and from the embryo which, 
having quickened, may consume away ; or, the soul 
originally drawn to her orbit may be replaced later 
by another, and so forth. Some clairvoyant women 
have been conscious of the soul attached to them, 
and have seen it, at times as a beautiful infant, at 
times in other shapes. Children begotten by ardent 
and mutual love are usually the best and healthiest, 
spiritually and physically, because the radical moment 
is seized by love, when the astral and magnetic in- 
fluences are strongest and most ardent, and they 
attract the strongest and noblest souls. 

For you to understand yet more clearly and fully 
the origin and nature of the soul, whence it comes, 
and how it passes from one body to another, you must 
know that the plane on which the celestials and the 
creatures touch each other, is the astral plane. The 
substance of all created things is the begetter alike 
of body and soul. The soul, as I have said, is 
formed by polarisation of the elements of the astral 
bod)', and it is a gradual process ; but when once 
formed it is an entity capable o( p 
body to another. Imagine the magnetic forces of 
innumerable elements directed and focused to one 
centre, and streams of electric power passing al 
all their convergent poles to that centre. I mag 
these streams so focused as to create a fire in that 
central part, — a kind of crystallisation of magn 
force. This is the soul. This is the sacred fire 
Hestia or Vesta, which burns continually. The b 



Concerning the Soul. 45 

and person may fall away and disappear : but the 
soul, once begotten, is immortal until its perverse will 
extinguish it. For the fire of the soul, or central 
hearth, must be kept alive by the higher air or 
Divine Breath, if it is to endure for ever. It must 
converge, not diverge. If it diverge it will be dissi- 
pated. The end of progress is unity ; the end of 
degradation is division. The soul, therefore, which 
ascends, tends more and more to union with the 
Divine. 

And this is the manner thereof. Conceive of God 
as of a vast spiritual body constituted of many 
individual elements, but all these elements as having 
one will, and therefore being one. This condition 
of oneness with the Divine Will and Being constitutes 
the celestial Nirvana. Again, conceive of the de- 
graded soul as dividing more and more until at 
length it is scattered into many, and ceases to be as 
an individual, being, as it were, split and broken up, 
and dispersed into many pieces. This is the Nirvana 
of the Amen, or annihilation of the individual. 1 

"And whence," you inquire, "is the supply of new 
souls for the continual increase of the world's popula- 
tion ? " Souls, as you know, work up from animals 
and plants ; for it is in the lowest forms of organic 
life that the soul is first engendered. Formerly the 
way of escape for human souls was more open and 
the path clearer, because, although ignorance of in- 
tellectual things abounded among the poorer sort, yet 
the knowledge of divine things and the light of faith 
1 See Appendix, note A. 



46 " Clothed with the Sun* 

were stronger and purer. Wherefore the souls of 
those ages of the world, not being enchained to earth 
as they now aie, were enabled to pass more quickly 
through their avatars, and but few incarnations sufficed 
where now many are necessary. 

For in these days the ignorance of the mind is 
weighted by materialism instead of being lightened 
by faith. It is sunk to earth by love of the body 
and by atheism, and excessive care for the things of 
sense. And being crushed thereby, it lingers long 
in the atmosphere of earth, seeking many fresh lodg- 
ments, and so multiplies bodies. 

And, furthermore, you must not conceive of Crea- 
tion, or the putting-forth of things, as an act once 
accomplished and then ended. For the celestial 
Olympus is continually creating and continually be- 
coming. God never ceases giving of God for God's 
creatures. This also is the mystery of the divine 
incarnation and oblation. The celestial substance is 
continually individualising itself that it may build 
itself up into one perfect individual. Thus is the 
circle of life accomplished, and thus its ends meet 
the one with the other. 

You have asked me — " How, if the planet consist of 
body, perisoul, soul, and spirit, can there be born 
of it entities which are not like it fourfold, but 
threefold or even twofold, as are minerals and severed 
parts of bodies, things made by art, and the like." 1 
answer you that your error lies in looking or. the 
planet as a thing apart frcm its offspring. Cert tinly, 
the planet is fourfold, and certainly also its offspring 



Conceiving the Soul. 47 

is fourfold. But of its offspring some lie in the astral 
region only, and are but twofold : and some in the 
watery region, and are but threefold ; and some lie 
in the human region, and are fourfold. The body 
and perisoul are the metallic and gaseous envelope of 
the planet. The organic region composes its soul, 
and the human region its spirit, or divine part. 
For when it was but metallic, it had no soul. When 
it was but organic, it had no spirit. But when man 
was made in the image of God, then was its spirit 
breathed into its soul. Now, the metals have no 
soul ; therefore they are not individuals. And not 
being individuals, they cannot transmigrate. But the 
plants and animals have souls. They are individuals, 
and do transmigrate and progress. And man has also 
a spirit ; and so long as he is man — that is, truly 
human — he cannot re-descend into the body of an 
animal, or of any creature in the sphere beneath him, 
since that would be an indignity to the spirit. But 
if he lose his spirit, and become again animal, he 
may descend, yea, he may become altogether gross 
and horrible, and a creeping and detestable thing, 
begotten of filth and corruption. This is the end of 
persistently evil men. For God is not the God of 
creeping things, but Baal Zebub * is their God. And 
there were none of these in the Age of Gold : neither 
shall there be any when the earth is fully purged. 
O Men ! your exceeding wickedness is the creator of 
your evil beasts ; yea, your filthy torments are your 
own sons and abominable progenitors ! 

1 Impurity, or the active principle in putrefaction and corruption. 



48 " Clothed with the Sun 

Remember that there is but one substance. Body, 
sideral body, soul, and spirit, all these are one in 
their essence. And the first three are difTerentialities 
of polarisation. The fourth is God's Self. When the 
Gods put forth the world, they put forth substance 
with its three potentialities, but all three in the 
condition of odic light. I have called the sub- 
stantial light sometimes the sideral body, sometimes 
the perisoul ; and this because it is both. For it is 
that which makes, that which becomes. It is fire, 
or the human spirit (not the divine), out of which 
and by which earth and water are generated. It is 
the fiery manifestation of soul, the magnetic factor of 
the body. It is space ; it is substance ; it is founda- 
tion. So that from it proceed the gases and the 
minerals, which are soulless, and also the organic 
world, which hath a soul. But man it could not 
make. For man is fourfold and of the divine ether 
or upper air, which is the province of Zeus, Father 
of Gods and men. 

The outer envelope of the macrocosm and micro- 
cosm alike, which is represented by Demeter, is in 
reality not elemental at all, but is a compound of the 
other three elements. Her fertility is due to the 
"water," and her transmuting or chemical power to 
the fire. This water is the soul or protoplasma, 
which is put forth by Deity and constitutes the in- 
dividual. Nor are you to look on fire as a true 
element. For fire is to the body what spirit is 
the soul. As the soul is without the divine life 
until vivified by the spirit, so the body, or matter, is 



Concerning the Sold. 49 

without physical life in the absence of fire. No 
matter is really "dead matter," for the fire-element 
is in all matter. But matter would be " dead " (that 
is, would cease to exist as matter) if motion were 
suspended, — which is, if there were no fire. For, as 
wherever there is motion there is heat, and con- 
sequently fire, and motion is the condition of matter, 
so without fire would be no matter. 

The soul is not astral fluid, but is manifest by 
means of the astral fluid ; for the soul itself is, like 
the idea, invisible and intangible. You will see the 
meaning best by following out the genesis of any 
particular action. The stroke of the pen on paper is 
the phenomenon ; that is the outer body. The action 
which produces the stroke is the astral body, and, 
though physical, is not a thing, but a transition or 
medium between the result (the stroke) and its cause 
(the idea). The idea manifested in the act is not 
physical, but mental, and is the soul of the act. But 
even this is not the first cause. For the idea is put 
forth by the will, and this is the spirit. Thus, you 
will an idea as God wills the macrocosm. The real 
body (or immediate result) is the astral body ; while 
the phenomenal body (or ultimate form) is the effect 
of motion and heat. If you could arrest motion, you 
would have as the result fire, and thereby would 
convert Demeter into Hephaistos. But fire itself 
also is material, since it is visible to the outer sense, 
as is the earth-body. But it has many degrees of 
subtlety. The astral or odic substance, therefore is 
not the soul itself, but is the medium or manifestor 

D 



50 " Clothed with the Su?i" 

of the soul, as the act is of the idea. If, however, 
the phrase misleads you, it is better to modify it, as 
thus : — 

The act is the condition of the idea, in the same 
way as fire or incandescence is the condition of any 
given object Light is of spirit, heat is of matter. 
Water is the result of the operation of Wisdom the 
Mother, or oxygen, and Justice the Father, or 
hydrogen. Air is the result of the mixture, not 
combination, of wisdom and force. These two are 
properly elements. They are soul and spirit. But 
Earth is not, properly speaking, an element at all. 
She is the result of the water and the fire, and her 
rocks and strata are either watery or igneous. She is 
water and air fused and crystallised. Fire also, the 
real maker of the body, is a mode and condition, and 
not a true element See, then, that the only real and 
true and permanent elements are air and water, 
spirit and soul, will and idea, divine and substan- 
tial, father and mother ; and out of these all the 
elements of earth are made by the aid of the condi- 
tion of matter, which is, interchangeably, heat and 
motion. 

Wisdom, Justice, and Force, or oxygen, hydrogen, 
and azotb, are the three out of which the two true 
elements are produced. But water is a combination, 
air is a mixture. Wherefore the only two real 
entities, water and air, are unreal to the phenomenal ; 
while the untrue elements, earth and fire, or body 
and electric fluid, are real in the phenomenal. 

Souls are re-incarnated hundreds and thousands of 



Concerning the Soul. 5 1 

times ; but not the person (which implies the body), 
for the body perishes. These things were known to 
the Gnostics, Therapeutae, Essenes, and to Jesus ; and 
the doctrine is embodied in the parable of the Talents, 
as thus explained : — Into the soul of the individual is 
breathed the Spirit of God, divine, pure, and without 
blemish. It is God. And the individual has, in his 
earth-life, to nourish that Spirit, and feed it as a flame 
with oil. When you put oil into a lamp, the essence 
passes into and becomes flame. So is it with the soul 
of him who nourishes the Spirit. It grows gradually 
pure, and becomes the Spirit. By this means the 
Spirit be;omes the richer. And, as in the parable of 
the Talents, where God has given five talents, man 
pays back ten ; or he returns nothing, and perishes. 

When a soul has once become regenerate, it 
returns to the body only by its own free will, and as 
a Redeemer or Messenger. Such a one regains in 
the flesh the memory of his past. Regeneration or 
transmutation may take place in an instant ; but it 
is rarely a sudden thing, and it is best that it come 
gradually, so that the "Marriage" of the Spirit be 
only after a prolonged engagement. 

The doctrine of "Counterparts," so familiar to cer- 
tain classes of " Spiritualists," is a travesty, due to 
delusive spirits, of the " Marriage of Regeneration." 

Regeneration does not affect the interior man only. 
A regenerate person may have his body such that no 
wounds will cause death. 

When a person dies, a portoin of the soul 



52 " Clothed with the Sim" 

remains unconsumed, — untransmuted, that is, into 
spirit. The soul is fluid, and between it and vapour 
is this analogy. When there is a large quantity of 
vapour in a small space it becomes condensed, and is 
thick and gross. But when a portion is removed, the 
rest becomes refined, and is rarer and purer. So it is 
with the soul. By the transmutation of a portion 
of its material the rest becomes finer, rarer, and 
purer, and continues to do so more and more until 
— after many incarnations, made good use of — the 
whole of the soul is absorbed into the Divine Spirit, 
and becomes one with God, making God so much the 
richer for the usury. This is the celestial Nirvana. 
But, though becoming pure Spirit, or God, the indi- 
vidual retains his individuality; so that instead of all 
being merged in the One, the One becomes Many. 
Thus has God become millions. We, too, are legion, 
and therein resemble God. God is multitudes and 
nations, and kingdoms, and tongues. And the sound 
of God is as the sound of many waters. 



No. XIII. 

CONCERNING PERSEPHONE, OR THE SOUL'S DESCENT 
INTO MATTER. 1 

I SEE God under two modes, one static or passive, 
the other dynamic or active. As the former, 
God is original Life, Will, Power. As the latter, God 

1 London, March 23, 1SS1. Spoken in trance. 



Concerning Persephone. 53 

is the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit and the Sub- 
stance of God are one. At first there is perfect rest. 
Then comes a movement of rotation round itself, and 
Substance becomes first ether, and at length matter. 
Every ultimate particle of matter moves in ether, as 
do the planets, and has two poles, that is in the 
intercellular ether. Their rotation is intensely rapid ; 
it makes me giddy to look ; and by this movement 
comes creation. This is accomplished in six periods, 
and then there is Rest, and the whole is re-absorbed. 
Wherefore there is an incessant Putting- Forth for six 
"days," and a recurring Sabbath of Rest. 

The more rapid the movement of the particles of 
his body, the more material is the man. Hence the 
object of the saint is to attain perfect quiescence, and 
thereby union with the Divine One. The "Philoso- 
pher's Stone" signifies in one aspect perfect quiescence, 
or the re-absorption of matter into spirit through the 
absence of motion. 

Thus the rigidity we know as matter is caused by 
the incessant, intense movement of spirit. This 
truth, for the Greeks, is represented by Demeter, 
who is all that is in motion and solid. And whereas 
motion is begotten of the Holy Spirit in time, her 
parents are Rhea and Saturn. Rhea is "the mother" 
of the Gods, and is the same as Nox, the original 
Darkness or Invisible Light of Divinity prior to mani- 
festation in creation. And Persephone, or Proserpine, 
is the daughter of Demeter or Motion — or that which 
makes visible — by Ether. Persephone is the liquid or 
psychic part of man, which consists both of his true 



54 " Clothed with the Sun. n 

soul and his " fiery " or magnetic perisoul. And the 
story of the stealing of Persephone, or rape of Proser- 
pine, relates to the "fixing of the volatile," whereby 
the astral part becomes coagulated into the material. 
Belonging thus, half to the body, or lower world, and 
half to the heavens and upper world, and thus linking 
the two together, she is said to spend six months of the 
year in Hades and six on Olympus. And she would 
be updrawn altogether to the latter, but that as the 
consequence of her eating a pomegranate, which — 
like the apple of Eve — is the symbol of illusion or 
matter, she is fixed in the lower world or body, 
whence her mother, Demeter, seeks to withdraw her. 

You are to understand, further, that this descent of 
Persephone into Hades comes about not only through 
the continued motion of the particles of the soul, but 
also through their depolarisation from the central and 
Divine Will. The body ought to be in such a state 
that the man can indraw and re-absorb it. But Perse- 
phone, through following her own will, reversed the 
poles of her constituent substance, and caused this to 
become fixed. Whenever, as was the case with Jesus, 
the man is in union with the central will of his - 
tern, he has power to indraw and re-absorb his b 
And one of the purposes of the Gospel story oi the 
water being changed into wine, was to typify this 
transmutation. Animals never have this power, as 
they have no divine spirit, and, therefore, no central 
will, to polarise. Man has it only by the Spirit's 
descent into him. The eating of the pomegranate 
implies the reversal of the poles, and the illusion 



Concerning the Genius or D aim on. 55 

whereby the outer becomes the inner, and the in- 
dividual polarises outwardly instead of centrally, and, 
so, becomes fixed and material. 



NO. XIV. 

concerning the genius or daimon. 1 

Part i. 

EVERY human spirit-soul has attached to him a 
genius or dairnon, as with Socrates ; a minis- 
tering spirit, as with the apostles ; or an angel, as 
with Jesus. All these are but different names for the 
same thing. My genius says that he does not care 
for the term angel because it is misinterpreted. He 
prefers the Christian nomenclature, and to be called 
minister, as their office is to guide, admonish, and 
illumine. 

My genius looks like Dante, and like him is 
always in red. And he has a cactus in his hand, 
which he says is my emblem. (Speaking of Dante, I 
see that Beatrice represents the soul. She is to him 
what the woman should be to the man.) He tells me 
to say that the best weapon against the astrals is 
prayer. Prayer means the intense direction of the 
will and desire towards the Highest ; an unchanging- 
intent to know nothing but the Highest. So long as 

1 London, November 1880. Spoken in trance. 



56 " Clothed with the Sun." 

Moses held up his hands towards heaven, the Israel- 
ites prevailed. When he dropped them, then the 
Amalekites. The genii are not fighting spirits, and 
cannot prevent evils. They were allowed to minister 
to Jesus only after his exhaustion in combat with the 
lower spirits. Only the)' are attacked by these, who 
are worth attacking. 

I am to inform you that the genius never "controls" 
his client, never sutlers the soul to step aside from the 
body to allow the entrance of another spirit. The 
person controlled by an astral or elemental, on the 
contrary, speaks not in his own person, but in that of 
the spirit controlling ; and the gestures, expression, 
intonation, and pitch of voice, change with the o 
sing spirit. A person prophesying sneaks always in 
the first person, and says, either " Thus saith the 
Lord," or " So says some one else,'' nev his 

own personality. This is one sign oi difference \vr. 
by to distinguish between the various orders of spi 

Another sign, he says, whereby to distinguish 
extraneous spirits from one's genius, is this, — the 
genius is never absent. Provided the mind is in 
a condition to see, he is always present. Other spirits 
need times to be appointed and engagements to be 
made for certain hours, because they may be \ 
where at any moment. These spirits, moreover, 
know nothing of the Gods. Their very name- 
secrets from them, and if they have heard them :' 
are but names to them. 1 They are unable to grasp or 

1 One of their commonest modes ption is by the assumption of 

divine names ; but their utterances are always pretentious and irane. 



Concerning the Genius or Daimon. 57 

conceive of anything beyond the atmosphere of their 
own circle. It is true that they speak of God, but it 
is without understanding the meaning of the word. 
The more negative the mind of the individual, the 
more ready and apt he is to receive these spirits. 
And, on the contrary, the more positive and pro- 
nounced the will of the individual, the more open he 
is to divine communication. The command always 
is — " To labour is to pray " ; " To ask is to receive " ; 
" To knock is to have the door open." " I have often 
said," says my genius, " Think for yourself. When 
you think inwardly, pray intensely, and imagine cen- 
trally, then you converse with God.' 

He knows, he says, concerning our immediate 
future, but will not tell. All he will say is this, — 
" Be sure there is trouble. No man ever got to the 
Land of Promise without going through the desert." 
Again he holds up to me the cactus, and he says : 
" Do not fret yourself about trying to get into the lucid 
state. In a short time it will be unnecessary to 
become somnolent at all." He tells me that to-night 
I shall recollect a great part of what has been said, 
and the next time more, and so on until my mind is 
quite clear on the subject. It is a weakness and an 
imperfection when the mind does not retain what has 
been said. At night, when my brain is free from 
disturbing influences, I recollect more perfectly all 
I have seen and heard. And this, he says, should 
always be the case, because my place is not taken by 
any other entity. No other spirit steps in to dis- 
possess me. But it is I myself who see and hear and 
speak, — my spiritual self, that is. 



58 " Clothed with the Sun" 

The genius is linked to his client by a bond of 
soul-substance. Persistent ill-living weakens this 
bond, and after several incarnations — even to "seventy 
times seven " — thus ill-spent, the genius is freed and 
the soul definitively lost. It is not isolated crime, 
as murder, adultery, or incest, or even a repetition of 
these, which breaks this bond ; but a continued con- 
dition of the heart in which the will of the individual 
is in persistent opposition to the Divine Will. For 
this is a state in which repentance is impossible. 
The condition most favourable to salvation and 
speedy emancipation from successive incarnations, is 
the attitude of willing obedience, — freedom and sub- 
mission. The great object to be attained is emanci- 
pation from the body,— from the power and need of 
the body, that is. 

In order the better to comprehend the procession 
of Spirit, it must be understood that Life may be 
represented by a triangle, at the apex of which is 
God. Of this triangle the two sides are formed by 
two streams, the one flowing outwards, the other 
upwards. The base may be taken to represent the 
material plane. Thus, from God proceed the Gods. 
From the Gods proceed all the hierarchy of heaven, 
with the various orders from the highest to the 
lowest. And the lowest is the order of the genii, 
or guardian angels. These rest on the material 
plane, but do not enter it. The other side of the 
triangle is a continuation of the base. The initiatory 
forms of the base of the triangle are the lowest 
expressions of life. These are the first expressions 



Concerning the Genius or Daimon. 59 

of incarnation, and of the stream which, unlike the 
first, flows inwards and upwards. The side of the 
triangle represented by this stream, culminates in the 
Christ, and empties itself into pure spirit, which is 
God. There are, consequently, spirits who, by their 
nature, never have been and never can be incarnate. 
And there are others who reach their perfection 
through incarnation. You will see, then, that the 
genii and the astrals have nothing in common. 
For the space contained in the triangle, and separat- 
ing on the one hand the apex from the base, and on 
the other hand the two opposing sides, is a space 
occupied by the planetary fluid. 

There are but two eternal generations, — that of 
the celestials who begin from the Spirit and are 
"begotten;" and that of the created entities who 
accrete a body exteriorly. The astrals are between 
these two. They are as planes which cannot focus 
the Divine Spirit, since their rays are reflected in all 
directions, and do not converge to a central point. 
They cannot know God. They are not microcosms. 
Man alone of the created entities is a microcosm, and 
he is this because the Divine Spirit, the nucleolus, 
contains necessarily the potentiality of the whole 
celestial cell. In God are all the Gods included ; 
and the nucleolus in the perfected created cell is, 
therefore, multiple. Every man is a planet, having 
sun, moon, and stars. 

The genius of a man is his satellite. Man is a 
planet. God — the God of the man — is his sun, and 
the moon of this planet is Isis, its initiator, or genius. 



60 " Clothed with the Sun" 

The genius is made to minister to the man, and to 
give him light. But the light he gives is from God, 
and not of himself. He is not a planet but a moon, 
and his function is to light up the dark places of his 
planet. 

The day and night of the microcosm, man, are its 
positive and passive, or projective and reflective states. 
In the projective state we seek actively outwards ; we 
aspire and will forcibly ; we hold active communion 
with the God without. In the reflective state we look 
inwards, we commune with our own heart ; we indraw 
and concentrate ourselves secretly and interiorly. 
During this condition the "Moon" enlightens our 
hidden chamber with her torch, and shows us our- 
selves in our interior recess. 

Who or what, then, is this moon ? It is part of 
ourselves, and revolves with us. It is our celestial 
affinity, — of whose order is it said, " Their angels do 
always behold the face of My Father." 

Every human soul has a celestial affinity, which is 
part of his system and a type of his spiritual nature. 
This angelic counterpart is the bond of union between 
the man and God ; and it is in virtue of his spiritual 
nature that this angel is attached to him. Rudimen- 
tary creatures have no celestial affinity ; but from the 
moment that the soul quickens, the cord of union is 
established. 

It is in virtue of man's being a planet that he his 
a moon. If he were not fourfold, as is the planet, he 
could not have one. Rudimentary men are not four- 
fold. They have not the Spirit. 



Concerning the Genius or Daimon. 6 1 

The genius is the moon to the planet man, reflect- 
ing to him the sun, or God, within him. For the 
divine Spirit which animates and eternises the man, 
is the God of the man, the sun that enlightens him. 
And this sun it is, an'd not the outer and planetary 
man, that his genius, as satellite, reflects to him. 
Thus attached to the planet, the genius is the com- 
plement of the man ; and his " sex " is always the 
converse of the planet's. And because he reflects, 
not the planet, but the sun, not the man (as do the 
astrals), but the God, his light is always to be trusted. 

The genius knows well only the things relating to 
the person to whom he ministers. About other things 
he has opinions only. The relation of the ministering 
spirit to his client, is very well represented by that of 
the Catholic confessor to his penitent. He is bound 
to keep towards every penitent profound secrecy as 
regards the affairs of other souls. If this Were not 
the case, there would be no order, and no secret 
would be safe. The genius of each one knows about 
another person only so much as that other's genius 
chooses to reveal. 

Part 2} 

Now, there are two kinds of memory, the memory 
of the organism and the memory of the soul. The 
first is possessed by all creatures. The second, which 
is obtained by Recovery, belongs to the fully regene- 
rate man. For the Divine Spirit of a man is not 

t '.undo: May 28, 1881. Received in sleep. 



62 " Clothed with the Sun!* 

one with his soul until regeneration, which is the 
intimate union constituting what, mystically, is called 
the w marriage of the hierophant." 

When this union takes place, there is no longer 
need of an initiator; for then the office of the genius 
is ended. For, as the moon, Isis, or u Mother," of 
the planet man, the genius reflects to the soul the 
Divine Spirit, with which she is not yet fully united. 
In all things is order. Wherefore, as with the planets, 
so with the microcosm. They who are nearest 
Divinity, need no moon. But so long as they have 
night, — so long, that is, as any part of the soul 
remains unilluminated, and her memory or perception 
obscure, — so long the mirror of the angel continues 
to reflect the sun to the soul. 

For the memory of the soul is recovered by a 
three-fold operation, — that of the soul herself, of the 
moon, and of the sun. The genius is not an informing 
spirit. He can tell nothing to the soul. All that 
she receives is already within herself. But in the 
darkness of the night, it would remain there undis- 
covered, but for the torch of the angel who enlightens. 
"Yea," says the angel genius to his client, "I 
illuminate thee, but I instruct thee not. I warn 
thee, but I tight not. I attend, but I lead not. Thy 
treasure is within thyself! My light showeth where it 
lieth." 

When regeneration is fully attained, the divine 
Spirit alone instructs the hierophant. " For the 
gates of his city shall never be shut ; there shall 
be no night there ; the night shall be no more. And 



Concerning the Genius or Daimon. 63 

they shall not need the light of the lamp, because 
the Lord God shall enlighten them." The prophet 
is a man illumined by his angel. The Christ is a 
man married to the Spirit. And he returns out of 
pure love to redeem, needing no more to return 
to the flesh for his own sake. Wherefore he is said 
to come down from heaven. For he hath attained, 
and is a medium for the Highest. He baptiseth 
with the holy Ghost, and with the Divine Fire itself. 
He is always "in heaven." And in that he ascendeth, 
it is because the Spirit uplifteth him, even the Spirit 
who descendeth upon him. " And in that he 
descendeth, it is because he has first ascended beyond 
all spheres into the highest Presence. For he that 
ascendeth, ascendeth because he also descended first 
into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended 
is the same also who ascendeth above all the heavens, 
to fill all things." Such a one returns, therefore, 
from a higher world ; he belongs no more to the 
domain of Dionysos. But he comes from the "sun " 
itself, or from some nearer sphere to the sun than 
ours ; having passed from the lowest upwards. 

And what of the genius himself? I asked. Is 
he sorry when his client attains perfection, and needs 
him no more ? 

And he said, " He that hath the bride is the bride- 
groom. And he that standeth by rejoiceth greatly 
because of the bridegroom's voice." I return, 
therefore, to my source, for my mission is ended, 
and my Sabbath is come. And I am one with 
the twain. 



64 " Clothed with the Suji" 

Here he led me into a large chamber where I 
saw four bullocks lying slaughtered upon altars, 
and a number of persons standing round in the 
act of adoration. And above, in the fumes arising 
from the spirits of the blood, were misty colossal 
shapes, half-formed, from the waist upwards, and 
resembling the Gods. And he said " These are 
Astrals. And thus will they do until the end of 
the world." 

After this instruction concerning the degradation 
of religion through the materialisation of the spiritual 
doctrine of sacrifice, he resumed : — 

The genius, then, remains with his client so 1" 
the man is fourfold. A beast has no genius. A 
Christ has none. For first, all is latent light. That 
is one. And this one becomes two ; that is, body 
and astral bod)-. And these two become three ; 
that is, a rational soul is born in the midst of the 
astral body. This rational soul is the true Person. 
From that moment, therefore, this personality is an 
individual existence, as a plant or as an animal. 
These three become four ; that is, human. And the 
fourth is the Nous, not yet one with the soul, but 
overshadowing it, and transmitting light as it were 
through a glass, that is, through the initiator. But 
when the four become three, — that is, when the 
" marriage " takes place, and the soul and spirit are 
indissolubly united, — there is no longer need either 
of migration or o\ genius. For the Nous has become 
one with the soul, and the cord of union is dissolved. 
And yet again, the three become twain at the dis- 



Concerning the Genius or Daimon. 65 

solution of the body ; and again, the twain become 
one, that is, the Christ-spirit-soul. The Divine Spirit 
and the genius, therefore, are not to be regarded as 
diverse, nor yet as identical. The genius is flame, 
and is celestial ; that is, he is spirit, and one in 
nature with the Divine ; for his light is the divine 
light. He is as a glass, as a cord, as a bond between 
the soul and her divine part. He is the clear at- 
mosphere through which the divine ray passes, making 
a path for it in the astral medium. 

In the celestial plane, all things are personal. And 
therefore the bond between the soul and spirit is a 
person. But when a man is " born again," he no 
longer needs the bond which unites him to his divine 
source. The genius, or flame, therefore, returns to 
that source ; and this being itself united to the soul, 
the genius also becomes one with the twain. For 
the genius is the divine light in the sense that he is 
but a divided tongue of it, having no isolating vehicle. 
But the tincture of this flame differs according to the 
celestial atmosphere of the particular soul. The 
divine light, indeed, is white, being seven in one. 
But the genius is a flame of a single colour only. 
And this colour he takes from the soul, and by that 
ray transmits to her the light of the Nous, her divine 
spouse. The angel-genii are of all the tinctures of 
all the colours. 

I have said that in the celestial plane all things are 
personal, but in the astral plane they are reflects. 
The genius is a person because he is a celestial, and 
of soul-spirit, or substantial nature. But the astrals 

E 



66 " Clothed with the Sun." 

are of fluidic nature, having no personal part. In the 
celestial plane, spirit and substance are one, dual in 
unity ; and thus are all celestials constituted. But in 
the astral plane they have no individual, and no 
divine part. They are protoplasmic only, without 
either nucleus or nucleolus. 

The voice of the genius is the voice of God ; for 
God speaks through him as a man through the horn 
of a trumpet. Thou mayest not adore him, for he is 
the instrument of God, and thy minister. But thou 
must obey him, for he hath no voice of his own, but 
sheweth thee the will of the Spirit. 



No. XV 

concerning the "powers of the air." 1 

Part i. 

I SAW last night in my sleep my genius clothed 
with a red flame and standing in a dark place. 
He held in his hand a cup, into which he bade me 
look. I did so, and as I looked a mist gathered in 
the cup like a cloud ; and I saw in the cloud spirits 
wrestling with each other. Then the cup seemed to 
widen, until it became a great table upon which 
scenes and words were written. And I saw the 
vapour filled with astral spirits, ephemeral, flame-like, 
chimerical ; and upon the mist which enveloped and 

1 London, November 17, iSSo. 



Concerning the " Powers of the Air? 67 

swept around them was written, " The Powers of the 
Air." 

And I said to my genius, " Are these the spirits 
which control mediums?" And he said, "Do not 
use that word Medium ; for it is misleading. These 
are the powers which affect and influence Sensitives. 1 
They do not control, for they have no force. They 
are light as vapour. See ! " Then he breathed on 
the table, and they were dispersed on all sides like 
smoke. And I said, " Whence do these spirits -come, 
and what is their origin and nature ? " And he 
answered, — " They are Reflects. They have no real 
entity in themselves. They resemble mists which 
rise from the damp earth of low-lying lands, and 
which the heat of the sun disperses. Again, they are 
like vapours in high altitudes, upon which if a man's 
shadow falls he beholds himself as a giant. For 
these spirits invariably flatter and magnify a man to 
himself. And this is a sign whereby you may know 
them. They tell one that he is a king ; another, that 
he is a Christ ; another, that he is the wisest of 
mortals, and the like. For, being born of the fluids of 
the body, they are unspiritiial and live of the body." 

" Do they, then," I asked, " come from within the 
man ? " 

" All things," he replied, " come from within. A 
man's foes are they of his own household." 

" And how," I asked, " may we discern the astrals 
from the higher spirits ? " 

1 That this is not intended to be an exhaustive account of the experi- 
ences of Sensitives will be seen from Nos. XXXIX., XL., and XLVI. 



68 " Clothed with the Sim!* 

" I have told you of one sign ; — they are flattering 
spirits. Now I will tell you of another. They always 
depreciate woman. And they do this because their 
deadliest foe is the Intuition. And these, too, are 
their signs. Is there anything strong ? they will make 
it weak. Is there anything wise ? they will make it 
foolish. Is there anything sublime ? they will distort 
and travesty it. And this they do because they are 
exhalations of matter, and have no spiritual nature. 
Hence they pursue and persecute the Woman continu- 
ally, sending after her a flood of eloquence like a tor- 
rent to sweep her away. But it shall be in vain. For 
God shall carry her to His throne, and she shall tread 
on the necks of them. 

" Therefore the high Gods will give through a 
woman the interpretation which alone can save the 
world. A woman shall open the gates of the king- 
dom to mankind, because intuition only can redeem. 
Between the woman and the astrals there is always 
enmity; for the}- seek to destroy her and her office, 
and to put themselves in her place. They are the 
delusive shapes who tempted the saints of old with 
exceeding beauty and wiles of love, and great show of 
affection and flattery. Oh, beware of them when they 
flatter, for they spread a net for thy soul." 

"Am I, then," I asked, "in danger from them? 
Am I, too, a Sensitive ? " And he said, — 

" No, you are a Poet. And in that is your strength 
and your salvation. Poets are the children of the 
Sun, and the Sun illumines them. No poet can be 
vain or self-exalted; for lie knows that he speaks only 



Concerning the " Pozvers of the Air** 69 

the words of God. ' I sing,' he says, ' because I must' 
Learn a truth which is known only to the Sons of 
God. The Spirit within you is divine. It is God. 
When you prophesy and when you sing, it is the 
Spirit within you which gives you utterance. It is the 
' New Wine of Dionysos.' By this Spirit your body is 
enlightened, as a lamp by the flame within it. Now, 
the flame is not the oil, for the oil may be there 
without the light. Yet the flame cannot be there 
without the oil. Your body, then, is the lamp-case 
into which the oil is poured. And this — the oil — is 
your soul, a fine and combustible fluid. And the 
flame is the divine Spirit, which is not born of the oil, 
but is conveyed to it by the hand of God. You may 
quench this Spirit utterly, and thenceforward you will 
have no immortality; but when the lamp-case breaks, 
the oil will be spilt on the earth, and a few fumes will 
for a time arise from it, and then it will expend itself 
and leave at last no trace. Some oils are finer and 
more spontaneous than others. The finest is that of 
the soul of the poet. And in such a medium the 
flame of God's Spirit burns more clearly, and power- 
fully, and brightly, so that sometimes mortal eyes 
can hardly endure its brightness. Of such a one the 
soul is filled with holy raptures. He sees as no other 
man sees, and the atmosphere about him is enkindled. 
His soul becomes transmuted into flame ; and when 
the lamp of his body is shattered, his flame mounts 
and soars, and is united to the Divine Fire. Can 
such a one, think you, be vain-glorious, or self- 
exalted, and lifted up ? Oh, no, he is one with God, 



jo " Clothed with the Sun" 

and knows that without God he is nothing. I tell no 
man that he is a reincarnation of Moses, of Elias, or 
of Christ. But I tell him that he may have the 
Spirit of these if, like them, he be humble and self- 
abased, and obedient to the Divine Word. 

" Do not, then, seek after ' controls.' Keep your 
temple for the Lord God of Hosts ; and turn out 
ot it the money-changers, the dove-sellers, and the 
dealers in curious arts, yea, with a scourge of cords if 
need be." 



Part 2. 

"The astral existences, although they are not in- 
telligent personalities, are frequently the media of 
intelligent ideas, and operate as means of communi- 
cation between intelligent personalities. Ideas, words, 
sentences, whole systems of philosophy, ma}' be borne 
in on the consciousness by means of the currents of 
magnetic force, as solid bodies are conveyed on a 
stream, though water is no intelligent agent. The 
minutest cell is an entity, for it has the power of self- 
propagation, which the astral has not. It is an 
imprint only, a shadow, a reflect, an echo. 

"The atmosphere with which a man surrounds 
himself — his soul's respiration — affects the astral fluid. 
Reverberations of his own ideas come back to him. 
His soul's breath colours and savours what a sensitive 
conveys to him. But he may also meet with contra- 
dictions, with a systematic presentation of doctrine or 



Concerning the "Powers of the Air" 71 

of counsels at variance with his own personal views, 
through his mind not being sufficiently positive to 
control all the manifestations of the electric agent. 
The influence of the medium, moreover, through 
which the words come, interposes. Or, as is often 
the case, a magnetic battery of thought has over- 
charged the element and imparted to it a certain 
current. Thus, new doctrines are " in the air," and 
spread like wildfire. One or two strongly positive 
minds give the initiative ; and the impulse flies 
through the whole mass of latent light, correspond- 
ingly influencing all who are in relation with it. 

" In man the astral fluid becomes transformed into 
human life at the moment of conception. It is the 
envelope of the soul, and constitutes the sideral body, 
which, in its turn, is the generator of the external 
body. The internal man — he who ultimately is 
immortal — consists of soul and spirit. The sideral 
phantom and the outer body are perishable, save 
when they undergo transmutation during the tenancy 
of the soul and spirit. Hence the sideral body, being 
the generator of sense, is the "Tempter," which — 
inclining to matter — gives matter the precedence 
over spirit. Of time and of sense, it beguiles the 
intuitive part of man. In this way spirit and matter 
represent, respectively, good and evil. For, in the 
day that thou givest thyself over to matter, thou 
becomest liable to extinction." 



72 " Clothed with the Sun." 

No. XVI. 

CONCERNING THE DEVIL AND DEVILS. 1 

BEING unable to reconcile the statement that 
there is no personal Devil, but that what is 
called the Devil is simply the negation of God, with 
the evidences of the possession of individuals by 
devils or evil spirits, I received in my sleep this 
explanation. 

" There is no supreme personal positive evil 
existence such as the Devil is ordinarily supposed 
to be. There is only the negation of God, which is 
to God what darkness is to light, the outermost void 
to the sol. system. But there are evil spirits, the 
souls of bad men on their downward road to final 
extinction. And these are wont to associate them- 
selves with persons in the flesh for whom they have 
affinity, partly in order to gratify their evil pro- 
pensities by inciting them to wickedness and mischief, 
and partly to obtain from them the vitality necessary 
to prolong their own existence. Sometimes they 
are so low in vitality that a sentence of expulsion 
from the person in whom they have taken refuge, 
involves their immediate extinction, unless they can 
find other location, though it be only in an animal. 
And this was the case with the devils whom Jes 
on expelling them, suffered to enter into the herd of 
swine. For it is the fact that the disorders of men 

1 Paris, October 26, 1S77. 



Concerning the Gods. 73 

do in some cases result from their possession by 
distinct personal entities as foreign and evil spirits, 
and are not merely disorders of their own physical 
constitution. Evil spirits have no chief, no organis- 
ation, or solidarity, nothing that corresponds to God. 
The worse they are the lower they are, and the 
nearer to extinction. The conditions which attract 
them are due to men themselves." 



No. XVII. 

CONCERNING THE GODS. 1 

A TRUE Idea is the reflect of a true Substance. 
It is because religious ideas are true ideas that 
they are common to all ages and peoples ; the differ- 
ences being of expression merely, and due to the 
variation of density and character of the magnetic 
atmosphere through which the image passes. The 
fact that every nation in every age has conceived, in 
some shape, of the Gods, constitutes of itself a proof 
that the Gods really are. For Nothing projects no 
image upon the magnetic light ; and where an image 
is universally perceived, there is certainly an. object 
which projects it. An Idea, inborn, ineradicable, 
constant, which sophism, ridicule, or false science has 
power to break only, but not to dispel : — an image 
which, however disturbed, invariably returns on itself 
and reforms, as does the image of the sky or the 

1 London, December 20, 1880. Spoken in trance. 



74 " Clothed with the Sun." 

stars in a lake, however the reflecting water may be 
momentarily shaken by a stone or a passing vessel : 
— such an image as this is necessarily the reflection 
of a real and true thing, and no illusion begotten of 
the water itself. 

In the same manner the constant idea of the Gods, 
persistent in all minds in all ages, is a true image ; 
for it is verily, and in no metaphoric sense, the pro- 
jection upon the human perception of the Eidola of 
the Divine persons. The Eidolon is the reflection 
of a true object in the magnetic atmosphere; and 
the magnetic atmosphere is a transparent medium, 
through which the soul receives sensations. For sen- 
sation is the only means of knowledge, whether for 
the body or for the reason. The body perceives by 
means of the five avenues of touch. The soul per- 
ceives in like manner by the same sense, but of a 
finer sort, and put into action by subtler agents. The 
soul can know nothing not perceptible ; and nothing 
not perceptible is real. For that which is not can 
Only that which is can be reflected. 



No. XVIII. 
CONCERNING THE GREEK MYSTERIES. 1 

IN the celebration of the mysteries of Phoibos 
Apollo, it was forbidden to eat anything upon 
which terrestrial fire had passed. Wherefore all the 

1 London, March 27, 1SS1. Received in sleep. 



Concerning the Greek Mysteries. 75 

food of his votaries was sun-baked, and his chief 
sacrifice consisted in fruits from high trees ripened by 
the sun's rays. 

With these mysteries of Apollo were associated 
those of Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen, be- 
cause both man and woman are admitted to the 
highest; and also because Eve and Adam, being 
thus initiated, were eaters only of fruits uncooked ; 
and, in one of the historical senses of the allegory, 
Eve and Adam were the first Messengers. It was, 
therefore, an offence against Phoibos and Zeus for 
their votaries to eat anything on which fire had 
passed, or any fermented wine. Their wine was the 
pure juice of the grape drunken new, and their bread 
was unleavened and sun-baked. 

The last Messengers must be initiated, as were Eve 
and Adam, into these inmost and highest mysteries 
of the perfect humanity, which constitute the highest 
of all castes, and entitle those who attain to them to 
sit on the golden seats. 1 

These mysteries have also an inward significance 
which is not hard to find. 

In the mysteries of Phoibos and Zeus, the initiated 
attained to the condition of a grand Hierophant. 
(" See ! I tell you all things." ) He was enlightened 
by the "sun," and was in the fourth interior circle of 
spirits, which is that of the Christs of God. 2 To this 
interior circle Jesus of Nazareth aimed to pass after 
his resuscitation; as was implied when he said, "I 

1 See No. XXIV. ; also "Dreams and Dream-Stories," No. IX. 
8 Comp. Hymn to Phoibos, Part II., No. XI. 



J 6 " Clothed with the Stuu 

will drink no more of the grape until I drink its blood 
new in the kingdom of God." 

In the mysteries of Hermes, the second circle, — 
the God who guards the Soul, — it was forbidden to eat 
any creature which had life, or, rather, which had 
seeing eyes. 1 For Hermes is the Seer. His votaries 
partook only of vegetable food, which might be 
cooked with terrestrial fire, and of wine, which might 
be fermented. 

Next in order were the orgies of Her who rose from 
the sea; and in these the initiates might eat fish which 
are truly fish, having fins and scales, but baked with 
fire, not raw. Wherefore as that Goddess is the Angel 
of Harmony, or of the Sweet Song, the eating of fish 
became a symbol of brotherly love and union ; and 
two small fishes together was the mystical type of 
little children dwelling together in unity or charity. 2 
For fishes swim in pairs ; and He who fished for men 
drew them unto him by love. And all fishers were 
under the protection of the Sea-Queen. There are 
two mystical truths belonging to the mysteries of 
Maria the Sea-Star; and they are, in their interior 
sense, the two fishes which Jesus imparted to the 
multitude. Of this I shall tell you more afterwards 
when I speak to you of the twelve baskets of bread. 
For these are the baskets which the twelve virgins 
carried in the divine orgies. 

In the mysteries of Bacchos it was permitted to the 
outer circle to eat, if indeed they would, of all flesh 

1 Comp. Hermes to his Neophytes, Part II., Xo. XII. pt. 2. 
a Comp. Hymn of Aphrodite, Part II., Xo. XIV. (2.) 



Concerning the Greek Mysteries, 77 

save of the unclean. This is, they might eat of all 
clean beasts of the field and birds of the air. This 
was the fourth and lowest caste. But the votaries of 
Iacchos (the mystic Bacchos), having known all the 
higher rites, abstained from these things, though they 
allowed them to the multitude who are in the body 
only. For none of those who worshipped Dionysos 
(or Iacchos) were uninitiated in the rites of Demeter 
and Aphrodite. And for this reason there were sub- 
stituted for the mysteries of Dionysos those of Ceres, 
the Earth-Mother, in which the use of flesh was 
entirely prohibited. For this reason also one hears 
not of the mysteries of Bacchos save in connection 
with wine, whether fermented or not ; for the interior 
significance of his rites had reference to the truth and 
meaning of things. The orgies of Ceres and Bacchos 
were therefore united, the Goddess being honoured in 
her bread, and the God in his chalice of truth. For 
in that these are body and spirit, solid and fluid, 
outer and inner, they comprise all things in earth and 
in heaven. 

And beyond the circle of Dionysos lay yet another 
— that of a God who also had indeed his orgies, but 
these were forbidden save in certain fierce nations and 
barbarous times. For in the mysteries of Ares, the 
Man of War, they sacrificed and ate human flesh and 
the flesh of horses, which also war together with man. 
For this circle is outside the kingdom of the fourfold 
circles, and belongeth to the beasts of prey. And his 
star is red, as with the blood of the slain. But the 
orgies of Ares the Ram-headed no man celebrated 



yS " Clothed with the Sim:* 

save in war ; and he who knew the God spared not 
his life, but freely sacrificed himself. For it was an 
abomination to eat at the altar of Ares in time of 
peace. 

Yet hath Ares also his interior meaning: — O 
Knowledge, thou art hard of access ! The Horse 
(which is the symbol of the intellect) dieth for thee, 
and the Warrior is pierced. Thou art the Man of 
War, and of iron are the wheels of thy chariot ! 

The Hebrew Scriptures describe the Lord Jehovah, 
or Logos, as operating as the Spirit of the fifth circle, 
when they speak of God as a Man of War. And the 
book of Wisdom (xviii. 15) thus represents Him. 
For the Divine Word takes many forms, appearing 
sometimes as one, sometimes as another, of His 
Seven Angels, or Elohim. These are only Seven, 
because this number comprises all the Spirits of God. 
So that when the seventh is passed, the octave 
begins again, and the same series of processes is 
repeated without, as reflects — becoming by distance 
weaker and weaker — of the same Seven Lights. 

See that above all things you teach the doctrine of 
Caste. The Christians made a serious mistake in 
requiring the same rule of all persons. Castes are 
as ladders whereby to ascend from the lower to the 
higher. They are, properly, spiritual grades, and 
bear no relation to the outward condition of life. 
Like all other doctrines, that of caste has been 
materialised. The castes are four in number, and 
correspond to the fourfold nature of man. 

The Daimons, Guardian Angels, or Genii belong to 






Concerning the Greek Mysteries. 79 

the order of Seraphs, or Serpents of Light, which 
surround and spring from the supreme orb. Hence 
the idea of the serpent as a fallen angel, the astrals 
being serpents of fire, springing from Hades, or the 
lower — the material and astral — world, which is the 
obverse of the upper. 

Venus, or Aphrodite, is celestial Harmony, — that 
binding power of sympathy which purifies, enlightens, 
and beautifies. The Apple in her hand is the Kosmos 
(denoting the world sustained and redeemed by Love). 

The Owl, sacred to Pallas, and the Cat to Hermes, 
are types of the Seer. For Wisdom and Under- 
standing can behold things in dark places. 

The Spoiling of the Egyptians has a secondary 
reference to the appropriation of their sacred mys- 
teries by the Hebrews. The primary reference is to 
the enrichment and edification of the soul by means 
of the lessons obtained through the experiences of 
the body, symbolised as Egypt. 

Air, Pallas, is the offspring' of Ether, Jupiter, or 
original Substance in its masculine aspect. Ether 
is universally diffused, penetrating everywhere, or, 
rather, impossible to be excluded from anywhere. 
The whirling atoms of the densest solids revolve in 
ether, as do the planets in space. In a sense Ether 
is space. 

The Soul, Persephone, is the daughter of Earth, 
Demeter or Motion, and of Ether, Zeus or Rest, 
respectively the visible and invisible. To him who 
knows the mysteries of Demeter or Ceres, the eating 
of flesh is an abomination. 



So " Clothed with the Sun? 

These mysteries contained, among other things, the 
relation of the soul to the elements by which on 
either side it is beset, — namely, to motion and 
matter on the outer side, and to rest and spirit on 
the inner. Hence Demeter and her mysteries are of 
profound import, and relate to secrets the most in- 
terior. As the force which causes spirit to become 
manifest as matter or earth, she is the Earth- 
Mother and the power whereby germination occurs. 
Constituting all that is fixed and solid, she is 
creation, or manifestation through action or motion, 
the invisible made visible. And to her is due the 
phenomenal or illusive by which her daughter Per- 
sephone—or the soul— is drawn outwards and down- 
wards. Illusion, the "fiery " or electric body generated 
of motion, and operating as a veil to hide the 
inner reality, is Maya and Glamour ; and the soul 
following this is carried off to Hades by its ruler 
Pluto (the God especially of riches, themselves 
illusive as products of the earth). Eating of the 
mystic Pomegranate (the " Apple " of Eve), the 
volatile becomes alchemically fixed, the soul is 
incorporated with the body, and in part, at least, 
materialised, and is no longer "virgin" or pure, 
because wedded to flesh and sense. At the entreaty 
of her mother, who fears her total immersion in 
matter, and consequent final loss, Zeus grants that 
she may divide her existence between the two worlds 
or conditions, the earthly and the heavenly, being 
— while in the lower — Queen of the Shades or those 
who sleep, being unconscious of things spiritual 






Concerning the Greek Mysteries. 8 1 

Thus the volatile or astral body, which is the im- 
mediate manifestation of the soul, is the daughter — 
or product — of Motion ; and Motion is the daughter 
of Time (Kronos or Saturn), and of Substance, 
which is Rhea, or the Holy Spirit in its feminine 
aspect. This last is the Great Mother, the original 
Panthea. The production of the material body by 
the fixing of the particles of the volatile body comes 
of the reversal of the poles of those particles through 
the outward tendency of the will of the individual, 
and its separation or divergence from the divine or 
central will. 

The force whereby Zeus, the central spirit, produces 
the soul or ethereal body, and which also the soul 
uses to project itself still further, is the same force 
whereby the system is transmuted and indrawn again 
to its divine centre and made volatile. The force is 
one, it is the will and direction that are various. 

In one application Persephone is the grain of 
wheat, Ceres the soil, and Hades the darkness which 
hides the seed, until under solar influence it emerges 
and returns to the light. It was through a misunder- 
standing of the mysteries of Ceres, and of the true 
meaning of the resurrection of the body, that the 
custom of burning the dead was given up for that of 
burying them. 

The Gods of the elements, Athena (air), Poseidon 
(water), Hephaistos (fire), and Demeter (earth), are 
among the greatest, and are close to the throne, 
having universal sway, inasmuch as their empire is 
universal. 1 

1 See Part II., Na XIII. pt. 2, and Appendix, note R. 
F 



82 " Clothed with the Sun" 



No. XIX. 

CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF EVIL, AND THE TREE 

as the type of creation. 
Part i. 1 

I SPEAK of the Tree and of its meaning. Of this 
the Hindus understand more than you, for they 
represent their gods with many arms. This is be- 
cause they recognise the fact that the type of all 
existence is a Tree, and that God's universal symbol 
is that of the vegetable kingdom. It is for this 
reason that the Tree was planted in the midst of the 
garden, forasmuch as it was and is the type of all 
existence, the centre from which radiates the whole 
of creation. Let the insight of the Hindus instruct 
you on this matter. 

" You have demanded also the origin of Evil. This 
is a great subject, and we would have withheld it 
from you longer, but that it seems to us now that 
you are in need of it. Understand, then, that evil is 
the result of creation. For creation is the projection 
of spirit into matter; and with this projection came 
the first germ of evil. We would have you know that 
there is no such thing as purely spiritual evil, but 
that evil is the result of the materialisation of spirit. 
If you examine carefully" all we have said to you con- 

1 Paris, July 21, 1S77. This part was written clown by the seeress 
nerself while in trance. Part 2. was spoken in the same condition 
immediately afterwards. 



Concerning the Origin of EviL 83 

cerning the various forms of evil, you will see that 
every one is the result of the limitations of matter. 
Falsehood is the limitation of the faculty of percep- 
tion ; selfishness is the result of the limitation of the 
power to perceive that the whole universe is but the 
larger Self ; and so of all the rest. It is, then, true 
that God created evil ; but yet it is true that God is 
Spirit, and being Spirit, is incapable of evil. Evil is 
then, purely and solely, the result of the materialisa- 
tion of God. This is a great mystery. We can but 
indicate it to-night." 



Part 2. 

I see a lake, vast and deep and bright. I am not 
certain whether it is lake or sea. It has no borders that 
I can perceive. Its waters are so clear that I could 
see the pebbles shining at the bottom, if it had one. 
It is overspread by a flood of nebulous light, evenly 
diffused in all parts ; and now, as I look, the light has 
become concentrated into flowers, and between them 
are spaces of darkness caused by the withdrawal of 
the light into the flowers. It is a vast floating garden 
of flowers, and in the midst of the garden is a Tree. 
The tree spreads out its arms everywhere. The gar- 
den is creation, the tree is God. And the tree seems 
in some way to be the flowers, and the flowers belong 
to the tree. I cannot discern the material of the 
tree ; it evades me as I look. It is not matter ; it is 
the substance of matter, the divinity underlying it. 
God is not light, but that of which light itself is the 



84 " Clothed with the Sun" 

manifestation. God willed it to be. Light is the result 
of God's will. God said, " Let light be "; and it was. 
Matter is the intensification of Idea. All things are 
made of God's thought. God is Spirit, and the sub- 
stance of things. I see two forces ever in operation. 
They are the centrifugal and the centripetal. And they 
are one ; yes, one and the same, for I see the force re- 
bound back to God. Creation is ever being projected 
from God as from a luminous centre ; it is always 
being drawn back again also. Some parts refuse to 
return ; they go into outer space; they are lost. Let 
me see, — can it be that they pass beyond the sphere 
of the Divine attraction ? Yes ; I sec that it is so, 
and oh ! they are lost. The Spirit is withdrawn ; it 
is as if it were sucked out of them, and they wander 
away into darkness, and expend themselves. The 
rest, who approach God, develop the Spirit in them, 
becoming more and more like God. God is the richer 
for them. They continue to exist. They return, but 
do not become lost in God. 

I thought I was describing orbs in space, projected 
from a central sun mound which they circled ; but, 
looking closer, I see them as individuals. They have 
become persons. It must be that the method of 
creation is the same for all. 

God subsisted prior to creation ; there was a time 
when God 'did not create: it \ s Sabbath of r 

Such Sabbaths recur, — when there is no material uni- 
verse. This is when the Divine mind ceases from 
thinking. For God to think is to create. Matter it- 
self is a result of the Divine thought ; it was first pro- 



Concerning the Great Pyramid. 85 

duced by the intensification of Idea. It appears to me 
that its first form was like water— fluidic. Spirit is 
Divinity itself. God is dual. I see, on looking closer, 
that through this duality God produces creation. Evil 
is caused by creation, or the projection of spirit into 
matter; that is, it is spirit which, by being projected 
far enough from the Divine centre, 1 becomes matter. 
Perception is one ; the senses are specialised modes 
of perception. God is perception itself. God is uni- 
versal percipience. God is both that which sees and 
that which is seen. If we all could see all, hear all, 
touch all, and so forth, there would be no evil, for 
evil comes of the limitation of perception. Such 
limitation was necessary, if God was to produce aught 
other than God. Aught other than God must be less 
than God. Without evil, therefore, God would have 
remained alone. All things are God, according to the 
measure of the spirit in them. And now I see that 
the nearest of all to God is a woman. 2 



NO. XX 

CONCERNING THE GREAT PYRAMID, AND THE 
INITIATIONS THEREIN. 3 

I SEE the Great Pyramid, and can tell you all about 
it. My genius informs me that the number of 
the pyramids in Egypt corresponds to the number of 

1 The centre, that is, of the Divine operation, not of the Divine Being 

2 As type of the feminine or love aspect of the Divine Nature. 

3 London, March 22, 1SS1 . Spoken in trance. 



&6 " Clothed with the Sun" 

the mysteries of the Gods. No one has yet rightly 
found out the purpose of the great one. It was 
built simply in order to serve in initiations. I see a 
candidate and seven or eight hierophants going in 
procession with torches through the passages. Each 
passage represents a mystery, the chief one leading 
to the " king's chamber." This represents the greater 
mysteries. The " queen's chamber " represents the 
lesser mysteries. The coffer in the king's chamber 
is a measure representing the standard of the perfect 
Humanity. And in this the candidate was laid on 
his final initiation. 

It appears to me that I was once there myself. 
My sensations about it are like a memory. It was 
not built to be a prophecy, but it may serve as a 
prophecy. In it is symbolised all the Wanderings in 
the Desert, — the history, that is, of the soul in the 
wilderness of the bod)-. In representing the soul of 
the individual, it represents the soul also of the race, 
and thus is really a prophecy. 

The new birth takes place in the king's chamber. 
It is the last stage. A person may be initiated 
several times in various incarnations ; but he is re- 
generated once for all. The " baptism " took place in 
the queen's chamber. It belonged to the lesser 
mysteries. It is neither initiation nor regeneration, 
but purification. There are four stages to be passed 
before final initiation. They correspond to the four 
elements, earth, fire, water, and air ; and they relate 
respectively to the four corresponding divisions of 
man's nature, — the bod)', the phantom or perisoul, 



Concerning the Great Pyramid. &j 

the soul, and the spirit, which are the four rivers of 
Eden. And the candidate has to be tested and 
proved in each of them by the " tempter." 

The initiate was accompanied by his sponsor or 
" mother," a priestess or Sibyl. The central secret of 
the Mysteries was the tree of life in the midst of the 
garden; Immortality, the secret of Transmutation, 
or of changing " water " (substance) into " wine " 
(spirit). This, " Issa" — the son of Isis — or Jesus, is 
alone able to do. O incomprehensible secret, who 
shall understand thee ! A soul, as has already been 
said, may be initiated more than once, in several 
lives, but only once regenerated. For she — the soul 
— can only once be born of the spirit, or " wisdom. '' 
To be regenerate is to be born into spiritual life, and 
to have united the individual will with the Divine 
Will. 

This union of the two wills constitutes the spiritual 
marriage, the accomplishment of which is in the 
Gospels represented under the parable of the marriage 
at Cana of Galilee. This divine marriage, or union 
of the human and Divine Wills, is indissoluble ; 
whence the idea of the indissolubility of human 
marriage. And inasmuch as it is a marriage of the 
spirit of man to that of God, and of the Spirit of God 
to that of man, it is a double marriage. 

I see the ceremony actually taking place. The 
hierophant represents the Divine Spirit ; and he and 
the candidate face each other, and crossing their 
arms grasp each with each hand a hand of the other. 
A soul may be partially and transiently illuminated 



88 " Clothed with the Sun" 

by the Spirit ; the Spirit may even descend upon an 
individual and make him a prophet, and pass away 
leaving him unregenerate, and out of the kingdcm of 
God, — as occurred to John the Baptist. But it is the 
divine marriage only which constitutes regeneration, 
the sacrament of eternal marriage. Of this intimate 
union the soul itself is reborn, and its inmost recesses 
divinely illuminated. Of such marriage as this the 
Patriarchs were ignorant. Their connection with the 
Spirit w r as fitful and transient, and they were there- 
fore represented as living in concubinage. 

We have herein the reason why the Cup is denied 
to the laity. " Of even' tree," it is said to the unin- 
itiate Adam, "thou may est freely communicate. But 
of the tree of knowledge thou mayest not communi- 
cate." The wine is the spirit of interior truth, the 
understanding of which gives eternal life ; and to this 
the people cannot yet attain. They may receive only 
the bread, which represents only the element of 
substance. This, however, contains also the spirit, 
although unmanifested and unrecognised. 

I now see the pyramid distinctly. It was built 
entirely for initiations, so far as its builders were 
concerned. In these ceremonials the Reed played an 
important part, and in sacred mythos generally. 
Thus, Moses was placed in a basket of reeds. The 
Hindu divinity Kartikya was sheltered in infancy 
by reeds. The mysteries of Ceres, or Demeter, were 
carried in baskets of reeds, called canephora; and the 
final stage in the initiation of Jesus is placed at Catia. 
A reed also was placed in his hand at his condemna- 






Concerning the Great Pyramid. 89 

tion. And the virgin in the sacred marriage initia- 
tion also bore a reed with a cup on it. This is 
because, growing in and out of the water, which de- 
notes the soul, and being a straight rod, the reed 
denotes the spirit. In India the Lotus has the same 
significance. I perceive that Jesus had been initiated 
in the mysteries of India and Egypt long before he 
was incarnated as Jesus, and he appears to me as 
having been a Brahmin. 

The Egyptians and Hindus appear to be of the 
same race, having their mysteries in common. For I 
am shown one of each people riding together on an 
elephant. Both countries were colonised at the same 
time from Thibet, and from thence all the mysteries 
proceeded. 1 In Egypt the initiations were generally 
in pyramids and temples. In India and Palestine 
they were underground, in caves. In Cana of Galilee 
there is a large cave, which was used for the purpose, 
with a " banqueting " room. 

I am counting the pyramids. I see thirty-six, but 
I think there are more. 2 

1 Herein is suggested yet another application of the parable of the 
Deluge. Thibet, like Thebes, signifies Ark ; and if, as long supposed, 
it was once the sole home of spiritual knowledge in the world and 
centre whence it was diffused, it may be said of the ancient Thibetan 
mysteries as of the dwellers in the Ark, "Of them was the whole 
earth overspread." The facts are noteworthy that Thibet is the highest 
table-land on the globe, and that the word Ararat is identical with the 
word Arhat, the Hindu term for the summit of spiritual attainment. 

2 Concerning the method of recovery of these recollections, see note 
at end of No. XXXIL 



90 " Clothed with the Sun." 

No. XXL 

CONCERNING THE " MAN OF POWER." x 

I HAVE said that everything- is fourfold, and as is 
the planet, so also is the man. The perfect man 
has a fourfold outer body, — gaseous, mineral, vegetable, 
and animal : a fourfold sideral body, — magnetic, odic, 
sympathetic, elemental : a fourfold soul, — partaking 
of the soulic elements of all the grades through which 
he has passed, being elemental, instinctive, vital, 
rational: and a triune Spirit, — because there is no 
external to Spirit, — desirous, willing, obedient. There 
is nothing in the universe save Man ; and the Perfect 
Man is "Christ Jesus." 

"Mercury" fecundated by "sulphur " becomes the 
master and regenerator of "salt." It is azoth, or 
the universal magnesia (of the Alchemists], the great 
magical agent, the light of light fecundated by 
animating force, or intellectual energy, which is the 
sulphur. As to salt, it is simple matter. Every- 
thing which is matter contains salt ; and all salt 
may be converted into pure gold by the combined 
action of sulphur and mercury. These sometimes 
act so rapidly that the transmutation may be made 
in an hour, an instant, almost without labour and 

1 London, December iSSo. Spoken in trance, but not, as in the 
foregoing, in the speaker's own person, but unaer dictation heard 
interiorly; and so also with the three utterances which follow 



Concerning the "Man of Power" 91 

without cost. At other times, owing to the contrary 
dispositions of the atmospheric medium, the opera- 
tion may necessitate days, months, or years. Salt is 
fixed ; mercury is volatile. The fixation of the 
volatile is the synthesis ; the volatilisation of the 
fixed is the analysis. On applying to the fixed the 
sulphuretted mercury, or the astral fluid rendered 
powerful by the secret operation of the soul, the 
mastery over nature is obtained. The two terms of 
the process are materialisation and transmutation. 
These two terms are those of the " Great Work," — 
the redemption of spirit from matter. 

Miracles are natural effects of exceptional causes. 
The man who has arrived at wishing for nothing and 
fearing nothing, is master of all. 

The Initiate of the highest grade — one who has 
power to command the elemental spirits, and thereby 
to hush the storm and still the waves — can, through 
the same agency, heal the disorders and regenerate 
the functions of the body. And this he does by an 
exercise of his will which sets in motion the magnetic 
fluid. 

Such a person, an Adept or Hierarch of magnetic 
science, is, necessarily, a person of many incarnations. 
And it is principally in the East that these are to be 
found. For it is there that the oldest souls are wont 
to congregate. It is in the East that human science 
first arose ; and the soil and astral fluid there are 
charged with power as a vast battery of many piles. 
So that the Hierarch of the Orient both is himself an 
older soul and has the magnetic support of a chain 



92 u Clothed with the Sun." 

of older souls, and the earth beneath his feet and 
the medium around him are charged with electric 
force in a degree not to be found elsewhere. 

Now, the odic or sideral body is the real body of 
the man. The phenomenal body is secondary. The 
odic body is not necessarily of the same shape or 
appearance as the outward body, but it is of the 
nature of the soul. The creation of man in the 
image of God " before the transgression," is the picture 
of the man having power ; that is, having an odic 
body in which the elements were not fixed, — a body 
such as that of the "risen Christ." What I have 
said concerning the volatilisation of salt, will help to 
the understanding of this. But when the "sin of 
idolatry" had been committed, then man ceased to 
have power over his own body, and thus became a 
"pillar of salt," fixed and material. He was "naked." 

The man thus referred to. attained power over his 
body by evolution from rudimentary being; and at 
last, becoming polarised, received the Divine Flame 
of Deity, and thereby the power over "salt." But 
by reason of perverse will to the outer, he depolarised, 
and thereby fixed the volatile. Then he knew that 
he was " naked,'' and so lost " Paradise." 

Can Paradise be regained ? Yes, through the 
Cross and Resurrection of " Christ.'' For, as in 
"Adam" all die, so in "Christ" shall all be made 
alive. And forasmuch as the earthly dies, the 
celestial lives. The body can be transmuted into 
its prototype, the magnetic body. This is the work 
of the adept. The magnetic body can be abandoned 






Concerning the " Man of Power" 93 

to the odic fluid, and the soul set free. This is the 
work of post mortem evolution. But to transmute 
phenomenal body, magnetic body, and soul alike into 
spirit, — this is the work of "Christ." "I have power," 
said Jesus, " over my body, to lay it down and to 
take it up again." 

You have said to me, " If the odic cr sideral body 
be the maker of the physical body, how can this 
differ in form from it? How can a man be outwardly 
human, and really a wolf, a hare, or a dog ? " 

When you become an adept you will know that 
such fact involves no contradiction. The transitions 
of the sideral body are not sudden. It becomes 
gradually, and does not undergo changes by cata- 
clysm. It is already partly human before it has 
ceased to wear the form of a rudimentary man,— that 
is, of an animal. You have seen this in visions when 
you beheld the human shape in creatures under 
torture in the laboratory. 1 And it is stilt partly 
rudimentary when it puts on the human. Indulgence 
in its lower propensities may strengthen it in its old 
likeness, and accentuate its former propensities. On 
the other hand, aspiration towards the divine will 
accelerate the change, and cause it to lose altogether 
its lower attributes. That which is born of flesh 
is in the image of the flesh; but that which cometh 
from the beyond is of the beyond. The womb can 
bring forth only its own kind, in the semblance 

1 See "Dreams and Dream-Stories," No. XIV., " The Laboratory 
Underground." 



94 " Clothed with the Sun" 

of the generators ; and as soon as the human is 
attained, even in the least degree, the soul has power 
to put on the body of humanity. Hence the odie 
body always possesses some attribute of humanity. 
But it may lose this by sin ; and in such case it 
returns, by a fresh incarnation, to the form of the 
beast. Of such returns to the lower form, some are 
purely penitential ; but most are retributory. The 
adept can see the human in the beast, and can 
tell whether the soul therein is an ascending or 
a descending soul. He can also see the soul in 
a man ; and all men are not to him of the same 
shape or appearance. If your eyes were opened, 
you would be astonished at the number of animals 
you meet in the streets, and the scarcity of men. 
The parable of the Enchanted City, in the eastern 
fables, is descriptive of this mystery. 



No. XXII 

CONCERNING THE "WORK OF TOWER." 1 

YOU have asked me if the Work of Power is a 
difficult one, and if it is open to all. 
It is open to all potentially and eventually, but not 
actually and in the present In order to regain power 
and the resurrection, a man must be a Hierarch ; 
that is to say, he must have attained the magical age 

1 London, Decemner 1SS0. Received in si 



Concerning the " Work of Power" 95 

of thirty-three. This age is attained by having ac- 
complished the Twelve Labours, passed the Twelve 
Gates, overcome the Five Senses, and obtained 
dominion over the Four Spirits of the elements. He 
must have been born Immaculate, baptised with 
Water and with Fire, tempted in the Wilderness, 
crucified and buried. He must have borne Five 
Wounds on the Cross, and he must have answered 
the riddle of the Sphinx. When this is accomplished 
he is free of matter, and will never again have a 
phenomenal body. 

Who shall attain to this perfection ? The Man 
who is without fear and without concupiscence ; who 
has courage to be absolutely poor and absolutely 
chaste. When it is all one to you whether you have 
gold or whether you have none, whether you have a 
house and lands or whether you have them not, 
whether you have worldly reputation or whether you 
are an outcast, — then you are voluntarily poor. It is 
not necessary to have nothing, but it is necessary to 
care for nothing. When it is all one to you whether 
you have a wife or husband, or whether you are 
celibate, then you are free from concupiscence. It is 
not necessary to be a virgin ; it is necer*sarv to set no 
value on the flesh. There is nothing so difficult to 
attain as this equilibrium. Who is he who can part 
with his goods without regret ? Who is he who is 
never consumed by the desires of the flesh ? But 
when you have ceased both to wish to retain and to 
burn, then you have the remedy in your own hands, 
and the remedy is a hard and a sharp one, and a 



96 " Clothed with the Sun" 

terrible ordeal. Nevertheless, be not afraid. Deny 
the five senses, and above all the taste and the 
touch. The power is within you if you will to 
attain it. The Two Seats are vacant at the Celestial 
Table, 1 if you will put on Christ. Eat no dead thing. 
Drink no fermented drink. Make living elements of 
all the elements of your body. Mortify the members 
of earth. Take your food full of life, and let not the 
touch of death pass upon it. You understand me, 
but you shrink. Remember that without self-im- 
molation, there is no power over death. Deny the 
touch. Seek no bodily pleasure in sexual com- 
munion ; let desire be magnetic and soulic. If you 
indulge the body, you perpetuate the body, and the 
end of the body is corruption. You understand me 
again, but you shrink. Remember that without self- 
denial and restraint there is no power over death. 
Deny the taste first, and it will become easier to 
deny the touch. For to be a virgin is the crown 
of discipline. I have shown you the excellent way, 
and it is the Via Dolorosa. Judge whether the 
resurrection be worth the passion ; whether the 
kingdom be worth the obedience ; whether the 
power be worth the suffering. When the time of 
your calling comes, you will no longer hesitate. 

When a man has attained power over his body, the 
process of ordeal is no longer necessary. The Initiate 
is under a vow ; the Hierarch is free. Jesus, therefore, 
came eating and drinking ; for all things were lawful 

1 See No. XVIII., "Concerning the Greek Mysteries." Also, 
"Dreams and Dream-Stories," No. IX., "The Banquet of the Gods." 



Concerning the " Work of Power? 97 

to him. He had undergone, and had freed his will. 
For the object of the trial and the vow is polarisa- 
tion. When the fixed is volatilised, the Magian is 
free. But before Christ was Christ he was subject; 
and his initiation lasted thirty years. All things are 
lawful to the Hierarch ; for he knows the nature and 
value of all. 

When the elements of the body are endowed with 
power, they are masters of the elemental spirits, and 
can overcome them. But while they are yet under 
bondage, they are the slaves of the elernentals, and the 
elementals have power over them. Now, Hephaistos is 
a destroyer, and the breath of fire is a touch of death. 
The fire that passes on the elements of your food, de- 
prives them of their vital spirit, and gives you a corpse 
instead of living substance. And not only so, but the 
spirit of the fire enters into the elements of your body, 
and sets up in all its molecules a consuming and a 
burning, impelling to concupiscence, and to the desire 
of the flesh. The spirit of the fire is a subtle spirit, 
a penetrative and diffusive spirit, and it enters into 
the substance of all matter upon which it acts. When, 
therefore, you take such substance into your organism, 
you take with it the spirit of the fire, and you assimi- 
late it together with the matter of which it has become 
a part. 

I speak to you of excellent things. If you would 
become a man of power, you must be master of the 
fire. The man who seeks to be a hierophant, must 
not dwell in cities. He may begin his initiation in a 
city, but he cannot complete it there. For he must 

G 



98 " Clothed with the Sim" 

not breathe dead and burnt air. In a city you respire 
air upon which the flame has passed ; you breathe 
fire, and it consumes your blood. The man who seeks 
all power must be a wanderer, a dweller in the plain 
and the garden and the mountains. He must seek 
the sun, and the breath of night. He must commune 
with the moon and stars, and maintain direct contact 
with the great electric currents of the unburn t air, and 
with the gra c s and un paved soil of the planet. It is 
in unfrequented places, or in lands such as those of 
the East, in parts where the abominations of Babylon 
are unknown, and where the magnetic chain between 
earth and heaven is strong, — that the man who 
seeks power, and who would achieve the Great Work, 
must accomplish his initiation. 

The number of the human microcosm is thirteen ; 
four for the outward body, four for the sideral b 
four for the soul, and one for the Divine Spirit. For, 
although the Spirit is Triune it is One, and can be 
but One ; because it is God, and God is One. At the 
Last Supper, therefore, in which the Magians sym- 
bolise the Banquet of the Microcosm, there are twelve 
apostolic elements and one Christ. But if one of 
the elements be disobedient and a traitor, the Spirit 
is quenched and death ensues 



Concerning Regeneration. 99 

No. XXIII. 

CONCERNING REGENERATION. 1 

THE difference between the " Son of God " and 
the mere prophet is that the former is born 
regenerate, and is therefore said to be " born of a 
virgin." 2 But regeneration is a union of the soul and 
spirit, and is not a process in which the body bears a 
part. In the " Baptism" Jesus received the y£on, or 
" Dove," and was filled with the Holy Ghost, becom- 
ing a Medium for the Highest. The Christ is in- 
formed from within, and " needeth not that any man 
should tell him ; for he knows what is in man." But 
the adept receives from without, and is instructed by 
others. 

The adept, or "occultist," is at best a religious 
scientist; he is not a "saint." If occultism were 
all, and held the key of heaven, there would be no 
need of " Christ." But occultism, although it holds 
the " power," holds neither the " kingdom " nor the 
" glory." For these are of Christ. The adept knows 
not the kingdom of heaven, and " the least in this 
kingdom are greater than he." " Desire first the 

1 London, June 1881. Received in sleep, in answer to an inquiry 
respecting the advisability of studying occult science. 

2 f.e., his own soul purified from taint of materiality, — the soul being 
always the "mother" of the mystic or interior man. See " Definitions." 



i oo " Clothed wit h the Sun" 

kingdom of God and God's righteousness ; and all 
these things shall be added unto you." As Jesus 
said of Prometheus, 1 ''Take no thought for to-morrow. 
Behold the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, 
and trust God as these." For the saint has faith ; 
the adept has knowledge. If the adepts in oc- 
cultism or in physical science could suffice to man, I 
would have committed no message to you. But the 
two are not in opposition. All things are yours, even 
the kingdom and the power, but the glory is to God. 
Do not be ignorant of their teaching, for I would 
have you know all. Take, therefore, every means to 
know. This knowledge is of man, and cometh from 
the mind. Go, therefore, to man to learn it. " If 
you will be perfect, learn also of these." "Yet the 
wisdom which is from above, is above all." For one 
man may begin from within, that is, with wisd< m 
and wisdom is one with love. Blessed is the man 
who chooseth wisdom, fcr she leaveneth all thii 
And another man may begin from without, and that 
which is without is power. To such there shall be a 
thorn in the flesh. 2 For it is hard in such case to 
attain to the within. But if a man be first wise 
inwardly, he shall the more easily have this also 
added unto him. For he is born again and is free. 
Whereas at a great price must the adept buy 
freedom. {'Nevertheless. I bid you seek ; — and in this 

1 A term which signifies forethought. The remonstrance is ag 

undue anxiety an«« alarm on the soul's behalf while in ihe path of duty, 
,is implying distrust of the divine sufficiency. See Appendix, note I. 
3 I.e., the flesh itself is their thorn. 



Concerning Regeneration. 101 

al >o you shall find. But I have shown you a more 
excellent way than theirs. Yet both Ishmael and 
Isaac are sons of one father, and of all her children 
is Wisdom justified. So neither are they wrong, nor 
are you led astray. The goal is the same ; but their 
way is harder than yours. They take the kingdom 
by violence, if they take it, and by much toil and 
agony of the flesh. But from the time of Christ 
within you, the kingdom is open to the Sons of 
God. Receive what you can receive ; I would have 
you know all things. And if you have served 
seven years for wisdom, count it not loss to serve 
seven years for power also. For if Rachel bear tlK 
best beloved, Leah hath many sons, and is exceeding 
fruitful. But her eye is not single ; she looketh two 
ways, and seeketh not that which is above only. But 
to you Rachel is given first, and perchance her 
beauty may suffice. I say not, let it suffice : it is 
better to know all things, for if you know not all, how 
can you judge all ? For as a man heareth, so must 
he judge. Will you therefore be regenerate in the 
without, as well as in the within ? For they are re- 
newed in the body, but you in the soul. It is well to 
be baptised into John's baptism, if a man receive also 
the Holy Ghost. But some know not so much as 
that there is any Holy Ghost. Yet Jesus also, being 
himself regenerate in the spirit, sought unto the 
baptism of John, for thus it became him to fulfil 
himself in all things. And having fulfilled, behold, 
the "Dove" descended on him. If then you will be 
perfect, seek both that which is within and that whir.h 



102 " Clothed with the Sim" 

is without ; and the circle of being, which -is the 
" wheel of life," shall be complete in you. 1 



No. XXIV. 

CONCERNING THE MAN REGENERATE.* 

YOU have been told that Jesus and those like 
him came back voluntarily and were born 
under conditions different from the ordinary, in that 
they had accomplished some degrees of their re- 
generation. These degrees are twelve in all, and 
constitute twelve labours, twelve gates, or twelve 
pearls, all of which are of equal value. Jesus was 
born regenerate in certain degrees, and the whole 
were completed only after his *' resurrection," during 
the retirement which ended in his " ascension." The 
last degrees are the most difficult. There are four 
for the soul, four for the perisoui (or astral), and four 
for the bpdy, this being the last. And it was this 
that Paul was so anxious to accomplish, but failed to 
do. With some the body is never redeemed ; but 
this does not hinder the "divine marriage" of the 
soul and spirit. This marriage facilitates the re- 
demption of the body, but may take place without 
it. 

1 The above interpretation concerning Rachel and Leah, as we sub- 
sequently ascertained, is on the lines of the Kabala. 

2 London, July 9, 18S1. Received in sleep. See also No. XXXIII. 






Concerning the Man Regenerate. 103 

There are four zones or divisions in the astral light, 
and the reflect of Jesus is in the highest only, and 
cannot be seen by those who have access only to the 
lower ; and not being strengthened by the shadow of 
the body of Jesus, it has become fainter, until now it 
is hardly perceptible. This is because his body was 
indrawn. 1 

Jesus had a great advantage in his birth, owing 
partly to his own regenerate condition, and partly to 
that of his parents. Owing to the purity of his 
mother's blood, she is said to have come of a priestly 
family. For the same reason his father is said to 
have come of a royal descent, for the terms " Tribe 
of Levi " and " House of David " have a mystic 
meaning. 2 

The sanctity of any particular Christ is dependent 
upon the advance made by him previously to his 
birth. Jesus had in this respect an advantage over 
Buddha. He was regenerate in more degrees, and 
he had no sexual relations as had Buddha. The 
Twelve Labours refer each to some concupiscence, 
which is depicted under the figure of a ravenous bird, 
horse, or some other animal which requires to be 
subdued. And Jesus had previously accomplished 
the Labour denoting that particular kind of con- 
cupiscence. 

Now, of men some must needs be satisfied first 

1 Some occultists have made their own failure to discern the reflect 
of Jesus -a failure here accounted for — a ground for denying his 
existence. 

2 For another and more profound meaning of the derivation from 
David, see note to No. XXXV11I. 



104 " Clothed with the Sun" 

intellectually. These are regenerate first in the mind ; 
and afterwards they attain to the kingdom. 

But some begin from within ; and these are the 
most blessed. For they seek the kingdom first, and 
the rest is added to them afterwards. 

These last begin the Great Work in the heart, 
by means of the affection. And the grace of love 
attracts the Holy Spirit, and transmutes them from 
glory to glory, so that the reason, or mind, is 
suddenly enlightened by the inner reason ; and with 
such the work of regeneration is instantaneous, — M in 
the twinkling of an eye." These are of the type of 
the woman. 

But others — and these are of the masculine type — 
must perform their work more laboriously ; for in 
them the mind is first illuminated. They pass from 
without inwards ; from the circumference to the 
centre. And this is but a difference of method, not 
of ultimatcs ; for the Reason is the heir of all things. 

With these the Great Work is a slow process ; but 
their gold is one in kind with that of the first. For 
when at last the divine marriage consummates I 
labours, the mind and the body are already redeemed, 
and beyond the power of death, because they have 
already the power. 

But with those who are regenerate first within, 
there is suffering of the body, and often death. For 
two opposing currents meet with violence, and the 
result may be the rending apart of body and spirit. 
But yet their death is not as the death of the un- 
regenerate. Because in the very shock of it trans- 






Concerning the Man Regenerate. 105 

mutation takes place : matter, that is, is sublimated, 
and the man needs no further incarnation. He is 
free, for he has conquered matter. Wherefore the 
bond is severed between him and the earthly, and he 
will return to the earthly no more. 

He who is regenerate first in the body and mind, 
usually lives long, even beyond the limit of mortal 
life, and absorbs in that period his entire astral being, 
and often even his body. Thus did Enoch, thus Elias, 
and some others. I do not name them. And Jesus 
remained to do this also. For he would leave 
nothing undone, being in the end Lord of the king- 
dom, the power, and the glory. 

But when he arose from the dead, not having seen 
corruption, nor fallen under the dominion of death, 
there remained to him one degree of regeneration 
to be accomplished, — he was not yet " ascended." 

For there were then but the eleven ; because the 
twelfth — "Judas" — was imperfect. And because of 
this Judas, Jesus fell under the power of the cross. 

[For Judas was the type of his own weakness; since 
the flesh, not being wholly regenerate, was, in that 
unfulfilled degree, weak. 

And the regeneration of his body not being com- 
plete before his crucifixion, his flesh-will still warred 
against his spirit-will, and he could still find room 
to say, " Not my will, but Thine be done." 

The Martyrs who followed his teaching were braver 
in the face of death than Jesus, though their pains 
were, for the most part of them, far sharper. 

Tender women, maidens, and youths went fearless 



106 " Clothed with the Sim" 

and smiling to the stake or the rack, without tear or 
sigh ; but Jesus shrank and wept piteously at the 
foot of his cross. 

Yet a nun may be victor in the spirit though his 
body remain unredeemed. For this redemption of 
the body — when fully accomplished — is transmuta- 
tion, and its beginning is the At-one-ment of the will 
of the flesh with the will of the spirit]. 

But when Jesus completed his regeneration, then 
there were again twelve. 

But until Jesus, no man ever attained these twelve 
degrees and the divine marriage from within. 
Hitherto the taking of the kingdom had been from 
without, by violence and labour, after the manner of 
the Patriarchs. 

Now, these twelve degrees are fourfold for almost 
every part of man ; being four for the body, four for 
the astral, four lor the soul, but one for the spirit. 

And until Jesus there had been no regeneration of 
the twelve in this order, — from within. Buddha at his 
death had attained to the ten only. 

For of some the regeneration is fourfold ; being 
one degree for each kingdom, and the last for the 
marriage of the spirit. 

And with some it is sevenfold ; being two for each 
kingdom, and the seventh for the marriage. Such was 
the regeneration of the mother and father of Jesus. 

But Jesus himself had more than the four, the 
seven, or the ten- ; for he had the thirteen. 

And first he had four of the soul. With these, two 
of the astral, and one of the body, he was born. 



Concerning the Christ and the Logos. 107 

Afterwards, at the " ninth hour." when he had 
completed the fourth degree of the astral, he con- 
summated the divine marriage. 

Afterwards he achieved three degrees for his body, 
but the last only after his ' ascension " to the mount 
of the Lord. 

No man ever attained thus before. And since the 
glory is of the Spirit, or divine part, it is said l that 
Jesus by his marriage-feast manifested forth his glory. 

And the celebration of this marriage was in Jordan; 
but the manifestation was in Cana. 

For Jesus had received the Double Portion ; and 
hence his double glory. 2 



No. XXV. 

CONCERNING THE CHRIST AND THE LOGOS. 8 

NOW, Christ Jesus — the perfected spiritual, not 
physical, man — is the culmination of the 
human stream which flows upwards into the bosom 
of God. Man, arising by evolution from the lowest, 
finds his highest development, as man, in the Christ. 
Having reached this point, he is the perfect Son of 
Man, in that he is produced in and of Humanity ; and 
being such, and because he is such, he receives the 

1 I.e., in the Mysteries, on which the Gospels are based. 

2 Concerning the Double Portion, see No. XXXVII. 

3 London, July 12, 1881. Received in Sleep. 



108 u Clothed with the Sun!' 

baptism of the Logos. Now, the Logos is the Adonai, 1 
a word which implies Duality. And the Adonai is 
the Son of God, the Only-Begotten, the Two-in-One, 
whose manifestation is possible only through the 
Christ. The Celestial Trinity is composed of Sub- 
stance, Force, and Law. Fcrce is Original Life, or 
God the Father. Substance is Original Bein^, or God 
the Mother. Indissolubly conjoined, together they 
are Living Substance, the En-Soph or Boundless 
One of the Kab;ila. In themselves incapable of 
manifestation, they become manifest in and through 
Law, their Expression, Word, Logos, or Son. But 
the Logos is celestial, and the human could not 
know him in his divine nature. That the human 
may touch and know the divine, it is necessary for 
the two natures to meet. This is accomplished in 
"Christ Jesus." Christ signifies the Anointed. He 
is human in pedigree; and his Christhood is attained 
only when he receives into his own spirit the Logos. 
Then is accomplished the union o\ the two natures, 
the divine and the human. The two streams meet 
and mingle, and thenceforth man knows and under- 
stands God — through the Christ. For the Christ, hav- 
ing received the Logos, is Son of God, as well as Son 
of Man ; and the Son oi God in him reveals to him 
the Father. Man as human only could not say, as the 
Christ says, — " I and the Father are One." It is the 
in-dwelling Word who enables him to say this, — " For 
He who dwelleth in the bosom of God (the Logos) 

1 The name invariably substituted by the Hebrews lor Jehovah in 
speaking. See Part II., No. VIII., also Fart III. 



The Perfect ionment of the Christ. 109 

even He hath revealed God." Having- received the 
Law, or Word, the Christ receives also the Father and 
the Wisdom of God through the Word or Son, be- 
cause Adonai — being the Duality — manifests both of 
these to and in the Christ. Hence Stephen, dying, 
exclaimed, — "Behold, I see the Heavens open, and 
the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." 
In this utterance he declares the union of the Human 
and the Divine. He declares that in Christ, Adonai 
is manifest ; and that in consequence of this union, 
humanity is exalted into Heaven. For humanity 
can attain to the celestial only through " Christ." 
When man penetrates into this sphere he is " in 
Christ Jesus." And, as Paul says, "being in Christ 
he is in God, and God in him ; for Christ is God's." 
God, so to speak, lays hold of man in Christ, and 
draws him into Heaven. For at this moment both 
rivers meet, and flow one into the other in indissoluble 
union, the Logos in the Christ, the Divine in the 
Human, the God in Man. 



No. XXVI. 

CONCERNING THE PERFECTION MENT OF THE 

CHRIST. 1 

UST after I had been speaking of the mistake 
made by Christians in regarding Jesus as a 
ready-made perfection, I received a momentary 

1 Paris, October i, 1879. 



J 



no " Clothed with the Sun? 

vision confirming what I had been saying. For it 
represented to me the gradual perfectionmcnt of the 
Christ through suffering, or experience ; and a voice 
uttered aloud the words, " Ought not Christ to have 
suffered these things, and so to have entered into his 
glory ? " And other like passages also were suggested 
to my mind. 1 

Soon after this I found myself in my sleep sitting on 
a hill-side and carving a Cross out of wood. And a 
young man came to me and said, " I alone know how- 
to make crosses, and I will show you if you will come 
with me." And I took him for Jesus, 2 and I followed 
him, and in our converse, which was long, but of 
which I remember but a small part, he spoke much 
of the difficult)- that lies in the way of any one who 
wishes to attain a full revelation, owing to the deteri- 
oration of man's system through impure habits of life 
and especially in respect of food \\ which the 

blood is tainted and the tissues rendered incapable of 
the sensitiveness necessary for perfect interior vision. 
Even with all his advantages of as pure a paternity 
and maternity as the earth afforded, he said, he him- 
self had been unable to attain to perfect knowk 
and now, after nearly two thousand years of further 
degeneration, it is hopeless to attain all. That will 
come only when the world has for many generations 
lived purely, and the human system has recovered in 
a great degree the perfection which properly belongs 

1 Luke xxiv. 26 (Douay Versi n); Hel ) 8,9; 1 Pet iv. 1. 
4 But afterwards believed him to have been Hermes, assuming, as is 
his wont, a character in accordance with his messa 



Concerning Christian Pantheism. 1 1 1 

to it, and which it once had. It is to man frugivor- 
ous, and to him alone, that the Intuition reveals her- 
self, and of her comes all revelation. For between 
him and his spirit there is no barrier of blood ; and 
in him alone can the spirit and the man be at one. 



No. XXVII. 

CONCERNING CHRISTIAN PANTHEISM. 1 

THE crucifixion of Jesus was an actual fact, but it 
had also a spiritual signification ; and it is to 
this spiritual meaning, and not to the physical fact, 
that the whole of the mystical writings of the 
Christians refer. 

The fundamental truth embodied in the crucifixion 
is Pantheism. God is in all creatures ; and the stage 
of purification by fire through which all being is now 
passing, is the crucifixion of God. Jesus, as the most 
perfect of initiates, is selected by the Christian 
mystics as the representative of God. He is for 
them, as Buddha for the Buddhist mystics, God 
manifest in the flesh. In his crucifixion, therefore, 
is the symbol and type of the continual crucifixion of 
God in his suffering creatures, which crucifixion is 
the means and cause of their purification, and thus 
of their redemption. "These," says God, "are the 
wounds wherewith I was wounded in the house of 



1 Received in sleep. Paris, June 22, 1879. 



ii2 " Clotlicd with the Suu" 

My friends." 1 Which means, " I am wounded in the 
body or person of all creatures who are Mine — who 
are sealed unto Me." For " the house of my friends "' 
is nothing more than the mystical phrase for the 
temple of the body of others. " Enter thou into my 
house, O Lord ! " cries the holy soul who desires to 
be visited while in the body by the Divine Presence. 
And the Man-God, showing His five mystical wounds 
to the Angels, thus declares, " These are the wounds 
of My crucifixion wherewith I am wounded continually 
in the persons of those who are Mine. For I and 
My brethren are one, as God is One in Me." 



No. XXVIII. 
CONCERNING THE 

BEING asleep I saw myself in a large room like a 
library, for it had in it a great many shelves 
filled with bo.oks ; and there were several persons in 
it to whom I was speaking of the Christs, their origin 
and mission, and part in the history of mankind. 
And I spoke much of Jesus, representing that the 
doctrine of his immaculate conception was to be 
understood only in a mystic sense, and that all the 
story we have of his birth refers solely to his initia- 

1 Zech. xiii. 6. Judged by the context, either the passage is corrupt 
or the citation is from some Scripture not now extant. 

2 Paris, October 17, 1879. 






Concerning the "Blood of C/irist" 113 

tion, 1 which is the true birth of the Son of God. And 
I proved this by many texts and passages from the 
gospels themselves and other writings. And I spoke 
also of the origin of Jesus, and how he had been 
made perfect through suffering. Of this suffering we 
hear, I said, but little in the one life of his which is 
recorded in the gospels. The suffering referred to is 
a long course of trial and upward progress experi- 
enced in former incarnations. And I named some of 
the more recent ones, but have not been enabled to 
retain them. 

Coming to his passion and death, I explained that 
these were no atonement in the sense ordinarily 
understood. For that God does not take the mere 
shedding of innocent blood as any satisfaction for the 
moral guilt of others. But that the mystical Blood 
of Christ by which we are saved, is no other than the 
secret of the Christs whereby they transmute them- 
selves from the material to the spiritual plane, the 
secret, namely, of inward purification. And I showed 
that throughout all the sacred writings the word 
blood is used as a synonym for life ; and that life in 
its highest, perfectest, and intensest sense, is not the 
mere physical life understood by materialists, but the 
essence of that life, the inward God in the man. 
And when it is written that those in the highest 
courts of heaven are they who have made their robes 
white in the blood of the Lamb, it is signified that 

1 Initiation does not necessarily involve the agency of any human 
institution. The true initiator is in every case the divine spirit in the 
aspirant himself. 

H 



H4 " Clothed with the Sun." 

they have attained redemption through their perfect 
attainment of the secret of the Christs. And when 
also it is said that the blood of Christ cleanseth from 
all sin, it is signified that sin is impossible to him who 
is perfectly spiritualised, and has been baptised with 
the spiritual baptism. The blood of Christ, therefore, 
is not the material blood of any man whatsoever. 
It is the secret and process of spiritual perfection- 
ment attained by the Christ, and that whereby all 
who, following his method, know God and are initi- 
ated, become redeemed and attain the gift of eternal 
life. And many other things I said, being, as it 
seemed to me, taught of some spirit, and not knowing 
beforehand what things I was to say. 

Now I perceived behind me, a little to my right, a 
beautiful marble image of Pallas Athena, which stood 
in a small recess in the wall, and there fell upon it a 
bright golden light like sunshine, which varied from 
time to time to all the seven colours, but more fre- 
quently to the violet than to the others. And the 
light was chiefly on the head and bosom of the figure, 
which was clad as a warrior with helmet, shield, and 
spear. And I could hardly determine as I looked at 
it whether it were a living or a marble form, so life- 
like was it. 

A little while later all the people to whom I had 
been speaking were gone away, and I was in the 
room alone with my mother. She was in great 
distress and agitation, regarding me as lost and as an 
apostate from Christianity ; nor would she listen to 
any explanation I could make on the matter. She 



Concerning the " Blood of Christ? 1 1 5 

wept bitterly, declaring I had broken her heart, and 
made her old age a sorrow and a burden to her by 
my apostacy, and that I should be utterly cast away 
unless I repented and returned to the orthodox belief; 
and she besought me on her knees to recant what I 
had said. No words can convey the intensity of my 
pain, and the trouble of spirit caused me by this 
conduct of hers. My mother seemed to swoon at my 
feet with the excess of her emotion ; and I was on 
the point of yielding to her entreaties when I saw the 
door of the room open and a Spirit enter. He came 
and stood beside me, and said these words, — <; Whoso 
putteth his hand to the plough and looketh back, is 
not fit for the kingdom of God. And whoso loveth 
father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me." 
Then the dream passed away and I remember no 
more : but a deep feeling remained impressed on my 
mind that the scene was but the rehearsal and fore- 
shadowing of something that would actually occur in 
my future life. 

* * It is a satisfaction, which the sympathetic reader will share, 
to be able to state that, by taking the dream as a warning rather 
than as a positive prediction, and observing caution accordingly, 
opposition of the kind described was reduced to a minimum, 
and no breach of affection or serious unhappiness ensued. The 
mother only survived the daughter by a few weeks. 

The image of Pallas illumined by the seven rays denotes the 
Divine Wisdom in its plenitude, and manifesting all the "Seven 
Spirits of God." As beheld on this occasion, it was an emphatic 
intimation that the doctrine enunciated was uttered under the 
inspiration of them all, and especially of those represented by 
the two dominant rays, Love and Reverence. 



1 1 6 " Clothed with the Sun" 

No. XXIX. 

CONCERNING VICARIOUS ATONEMENT. 1 

I STOOD in my sleep on the balcony of a house. 
It was night, and so dense and dark and im- 
penetrable that neither earth nor star, nor any object, 
could be distinguished. Nevertheless, though not 
knowing where I was, I was conscious of being in or 
very near to a city. 

And I beheld floating about in the darkness, small 
tongues of flame exactly resembling in appearance 
the flame of a candle. They moved of themselves as 
if they were living creatures who directed their 
motions with intelligence and will. They sank and 
rose and passed through the air in all directions, and 
nothing but them was visible, so intense was the 
darkness. 

And as I watched the flames, two of them came 
floating towards me, and entering the house, glided 
round the room, and then returned to me on the 
balcony, and stopped and alighted, one on each of 
my hands, and there remained awhile. And then 
the whole scene passed away and the following 
succeeded. 

I saw a child, a boy at school, who thought himself 
unjustly treated by the woman who kept the school, 
and sorely oppressed and persecuted. And he went 

1 Taris, January 31, 1SS0. 



Concerning Vicarious Atonement. 117 

into the room where she sat, and in a fury broke and 
destroyed everything upon which he could lay his 
hands. And the paroxysm of his anger made him 
appear as one possessed. He dashed beautiful vases 
to the floor, and trampled flowers under his feet, 
and tore to pieces rich draperies, for the room was 
furnished and decorated in a very costly and splendid 
fashion. And then he suddenly turned on the woman, 
and seizing her by the hair, beat her and tore her 
garments, and scratched her hands and face. And 
all the defence she made was a few words of remon- 
strance. And I was shocked and terrified, thinking 
she was dead, and wondered what would become of 
the child who had the fury of a wild beast and the 
strength of a man. 

Then, after an interval, I saw a young girl, the 
daughter of the woman who had been thus assaulted. 
She was kneeling before a furnace and watching 
something in the flames. And she turned and looked 
at me and said, " The punishment due to the child is 
a terrible one, and cannot be escaped. He is con- 
demned to be branded with a red-hot iron on the 
palm of each hand, and then to be expelled from the 
school. The brands are now heating in the furnace." 

Saying this, she turned again to the furnace, and 
then with a rod drew out the iron and branded 
herself on each hand. And I saw the flesh shrivel 
up with the heat. Then she held up her palms 
towards me, and said, " See and read what is written 
on them." And I read on each hand the word, 
burnt into the flesh, "Guilty" "And now," she 



1 1 8 " Clothed with the Sun." 

added, u I am going to quit this house, my home, as 
I am banished." " You ! " I cried. " You are not the 
guilty one ! What have you done to deserve this ? 
I do not understand." 

And she answered, " I told you the punishment 
due to the child cannot be escaped. And I have 
taken it upon myself of my own free will, although 
I am innocent and the beloved daughter of her who 
has been so grievously offended and injured. As he 
would have been branded, I am branded. And as he 
would have been expelled, I am expelled. Thus 
have I redeemed him. I suffer for him. Justice is 
satisfied, and he is pardoned. This is Vicarious 
Atonement." 

Then, as she spoke these words, a wind blew in my 
face, and I breathed it in, and being inspired, spoke 
thus, with a loud voice : — 

" O fool, to imagine that justice can be satisfied by 
the punishment of the innocent for the guilt}- ! 
Rather is it doubly outraged. How can your being 
branded on the hands save the child ? Hath not the 
Word of God declared, ' No man shall take the sin 
of another, nor shall any make atonement for his 
brother's trespass ; but every one shall bear his own 
sin, and be purified by his own chastisement.' And 
again, is it not written, ' Be ye perfect ' ? And as no 
one can become perfect save through suffering, how 
can any become perfect if another bear his suffering 
for him ? To take away his suffering is to take away 
his means of redemption, and rob him of his crown of 
perfection. The child cannot be pardoned through 



Concerning Vicarious Atonement, 119 

your assumption of his chastisement. Only if through 
suffering himself he repent, can he receive forgive- 
ness. And so with the man who sins against the 
Creator by outraging his intuition and defiling the 
temple of God. The suffering of the Creator Himself 
for him, so far from redeeming him, would but rob 
him of his means of redemption. And if any declare 
that the Lord God hath thus ordained, the answer is, 
'Justice first, and the Lord God afterwards!' But 
only through the perversion of ignorance can such 
doctrine be believed. The Mystery of Redemption 
has yet to be understood. 

" This is that Mystery. There is no such thing as 
Vicarious Atonement ; for none can redeem another 
by shedding innocent blood. The Crucifix is the 
emblem and symbol of the Son of God, not because 
Jesus shed his blood upon the cross for the sins of 
man, but because the Christ is crucified perpetually 
so long as sin remains. The saying, ' I am resolved 
to know nothing save this one mystery, Christ Jesus 
and Him crucified,' is the doctrine of Pantheism. 
For it means that God is in all creatures, and they 
are of God, and God as Adonai suffers in them. 1 

" Who, then, is Adonai ? Adonai is the Dual Word, 
the manifestation of God in Substance, who manifests 
himself as incarnated Spirit, and so manifesting him- 
self, by love redeems the world. He is the Lord who, 
crucified from the beginning, finds his full manifesta- 
tion in the true Son of God. And therefore is it 
written that the Son of God, who is Christ, is 
1 See note on p. 108. 



1 20 " Clothed ivith the Sun? 

crucified. Only where Love is perfect is Sympathy 
perfect, and only where sympathy is perfect can one 
die for another. Wherefore the Son of God says, 
' The wrongs of others wound me, and the stripes of 
others fall on my flesh. I am smitten with the pains 
of all creatures, and my heart is pierced with their 
hearts. There is no offence done and I suffer not, 
nor any wrong and I am not hurt thereby. For my 
heart is in the breast of every creature, and my blood 
is in the veins of all flesh. I am wounded in my 
right hand for man, and in my left hand for woman ; 
in my right and left feet for the beasts of the earth 
and the creatures of the deep ; and in my heart for all.' 
"The Crucifix, then, is the divinest of symbols 
because it is the emblem of Christ and token of God 
with man. It is the allegory of the doctrine of Pan- 
theism that man becomes perfect — the soul becomes 
God — through suffering. He who is wise, understands ; 
and he who understands is initiated ; and he who is 
initiated loves ; and he who loves knows ; and he 
who knows is purified. And the pure behold God 
and comprehend the Divine, with the mystery of pain 
and of death. And because the Son of God loves, he 
is powerful, and the power of love redeems. He 
being lifted up, draws all men unto him. This is 
the mystery of the Seven Steps of the Throne of the 
Lord. And the Throne itself is of white, a glory 
dazzling to look upon. And in the midst of that 
Light is one whose appearance is that of a lamb that 
hath been slain. And he is Christ our Lord, the 
manifestation of Adonai, whose love hath thrust him 



Concerning Vicarious Atonement. 121 



<*> 



through and through. And to him is given all power 
to redeem in heaven and on earth. For he opened 
his heart to all creatures, and gave himself freely for 
them. And because he loved, he laboured and 
grudged not, even to death. And because he 
laboured he was strong, for love laboured in him. 
And being strong he conquered, and redeemed them 
from death. They were not forgiven because Christ 
died ; they w T ere changed because he loved. For he 
washeth their souls white with his doctrine, and 
purifieth them with his deeds. And these are his 
heart's blood, even the word of God and the pure 
life. This is the atonement of Christ and perpetual 
sacrifice of the Son of God. Believe and thou shalt 
be saved : for he that believeth is changed from the 
image of death to life. And he that believeth sinneth 
no more, and oppresseth no more. For he loveth as 
Christ hath loved, and is in God and God in him. 
The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, not by 
the purchase of pardon with another's gold, but 
because the love of God hath changed the life of the 
sinner. The penitent saves himself by suffering, 
sorrow, and amendment. By these he rises and his 
life is redeemed. And it is the Christ that redeems 
him by giving his heart's blood for him. It is Christ 
in him who takes his infirmities and bears his sorrows 
in his own body on the tree. And the same which 
was true of old, is true to-day, and for ever. Christ 
Jesus is crucified continually in each one until the 
kingdom of God come. For wherever is sin, are 
suffering, death, and oppression ; and where these are 



122 " Clothed with the Sun" 

the Christ shall be manifest, and by love shall labour, 
and die, and redeem.*' 

Here the sound of my voice woke me, and the 
vision ended. But presently I slept again, and be- 
held an infinite expanse of sky, open and clear and 
blue and sunlit, all in the most intense degree ; and 
across it and upwards flew an eagle like a flash of 
lightning before me. And I knew it was intended 
to signify that with the reproach of innocent blood 
removed from God, and the Divine character vindi- 
cated, there is nought to check the soul's aspiration. 

* # * Representing the return of the inspiring spirit to Gel, the 
apparition of the eagle was, like the illumined image of Pallas, an 
emphatic declaration of the divinity of the utterance. 



No. XXX. 

CONCERNING PAUL AND THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS. 1 

IN a vision which was given to me last night, it 
was represented to me that the common view of 
Paul's character and position with regard to the 
primitive Church is a totally false one ; and the 
persons who made the communication which I am 
about to relate, appeared to me to have been per- 
ally acquainted with Paul, and to be thoroughly 
familiar with the events occurring at the time of his 
apostleship. They told me, with evident indignation, 
that the Christian Church of to-day entirely misunder- 
stands the relationship really existing between the 

1 Paris, July 17. 1877, 



Concerning Paul and the Disciples of Jesus. 123 

apostles whom Christ had instructed and elected as 
his missionaries, and the converted Hebrew sacerdotal - 
ist. " It is amazing," they said, " that your Church 
can read in the writings extant concerning our 
relations with Paul the account of the mistrust, 
suspicion, and disfavour with which we always 
regarded him, and not see that he was never one 
with us. The very leader and chief of our circle 
withstood him to the face again and again, as though 
he had been an enemy of the Church ; and on one 
occasion he was forced to fly from the brethren by 
night and by stratagem, so great and so bitter was 
the indignation his view of the faith aroused among 
us who had been the Lord's friends, and who knew 
the truth as Paul never saw it. For he imported into 
that pure and simple rule of life a mass of Levitical 
and Rabbinical usages and beliefs which we had 
shaken from us as the dust from our feet. He sunk 
the realities of the Gospel of Jesus under an over- 
whelming weight of hard sayings and sacerdotal 
misrepresentations. He, who had never known the 
Master as he was, took upon himself to distort his 
image into that of a strange God whom we had not 
known. Nor could we recognise in his garbled 
version of the beautiful and willing martyrdom of the 
man whom we had so dearly loved, a single trait of 
his character, or the least resemblance to the doctrine 
he had taught us. What we had seen and known as 
the pure and perfect love of a ready death, bravely 
borne for conscience' sake, Paul presented to us in a 
new and unlovely guise as the sacrifice of a victim to 
appease the anger of the God whom Jesus called his 



124 " Clothed with the Sttn." 

Father and ours. Out of that which had been for us 
a simple rule of life, a simple purging of the old faith, 
Paul erected the strange and elaborate system which 
is called ' the scheme of the Atonement! For us and 
our Master there had been no 'scheme;' God was 
reconciled to man by love, and not by sacrifice. But 
Paul would have a " new religion," and a creed hard to 
understand ; and he left to the world a Christianity 
of his own which we knew not, but which is yours to- 
day. And in this he did us greater evil and detriment 
than if he had persecuted and slain us all physically. 
For by his false conversion he deceived the world and 
drowned the truth by a flood of strange doctrines. 
For this we were all against him, and never acknow- 
ledged his apostleship, being persuaded that he knew 
not Christ nor the faith whifch Christ taught. Had 
he been content with the truth, we would never have 
set our faces against him ; for he had many gifts, 
among which his eloquence was not the least. But 
through his fatal perversion of the faith, and through 
his fatal love of metaphysical doctrines and of Rab- 
binical subtleties, he falsified that which was the glory 
of the Church, and brought into the world the mon- 
strous doctrines of the 'Christianity' which is 
preached in your churches to-day. 

I was further told, that on the night before Paul's 
escape in the basket let down from the wall of 
Damascus, a violent altercation had taken place 
between him and the brethren, in the course of 
which Paul had maintained that the only chance for 
the final triumph of the Gospel lay in its erection 



Concerning Paul and the Disciples of Jesus. 125 

into a system, and one that must of necessity be 
sacrificial. They then challenged him upon the point, 
but he insisted that he saw further into the matter 
than they did, and that his special mission lay in the 
elaboration of the plan he had conceived with regard 
to Christ's position as a mediator between God and 
man. 

[The vision was entirely spontaneous and unex- 
pected. I had not previously given any attention to 
the subject ; nor was I aware that a similar instruction 
had sometime previously been given to my colleague. 

The personages I beheld in my vision bore no 
resemblance to any of the numerous representations 
of the apostles made by painters ; but I was far from 
being in a sufficiently lucid condition to obtain an 
impression of their appearance so vivid and distinct 
as to enable me, as usually is the case, to make a 
drawing of them. Neither have I been able, with 
anything like my accustomed accuracy, to reproduce 
their words. The tone and substance, however, are 
faithfully rendered. The tone throughout was that 
of strong indignation, mingled with regret, against 
Paul ; and of scorn at the folly of Christendom in 
accepting so gross and palpable a perversion of the 
teaching of Jesus and nature of God as that involved 
in the sacerdotal doctrine of vicarious atonement.] l 

1 2 Peter iii. 15, 16 (an epistle of exceedingly doubtful authority), 
evidently represents a desire either to compose or to ignore this feud 
by treating the difference as more apparent than real. The above 
utterance impugns the genuineness of all the non-Pauline Epistles so 
far as they propound this tenet. 



126 " Clothed with the Sun!* 

No. XXXI. 

CONCERNING THE MANICH^EANISM OF PAUL. 1 

AT this moment I hear a surge of waters. Out of 
the midst of them a voice seems to speak to 
me. This is what it says : — 

" Many years before Paul wrote there arose a sect 
called the Manichaeans. The founder of that sect, 
like the founder of the Epicureans, was inspired by 
US ; but they, like the Epicureans, understood not 
the nature of sin. The founder of the Manichaeans, 
whom we call Felix, saw this, that evil is the 
result of creation ; but his disciples understood that 
all matter is evil. In this alone they erred. And 
Paul, following his reason, but uninspired, perceived 
only the doctrine of the disciples. It is true, then, as 
the founder of the Manichaeans saw, that evil is the 
result of creation, but not that matter is evil. He 
who among you possesses the most vivid imagination, 
can project upon the retina palpable rings of his 
thought. Thus it is with Deity. I have said already 
that matter is the intensification of Idea, and that 
evil is the result of materialisation. 2 You have asked 
me, Why, then, did God create ? I perceive that 
God created by force of will ; and that, willing, God 
imparted to ever)- thought the power of will which, 
but for the limitation, could not have existed. God, 
therefore, is so much the richer by the will of the 
thought which lie projects/' 

1 Paris, July 24. 1877. Spoken in trance. 
* Comp. No. XIX. Part 2. 



Concerning the Gospels, 127 



No. XXXII. 

CONCERNING THE GOSPELS ; THEIR ORIGIN AND 
COMPOSITION. 1 

I AM looking at the inside of the Serapeum at 
Alexandria. The temple is connected with a 
library which, as I see it, is still there, neither dis-' 
persed nor burnt, but filled with manuscripts, — mostly 
rolls upon sticks. I see a council of many men sitting 
at a table in the room of the library, and I see a 
number of names, as Cleopatra, Marcus Antonius, 
and others. This is called the second library of 
Alexandria, the former having been destroyed under 
Julius Caesar. The nucleus of this or.e was the gift of 
Antony to Cleopatra, who added to it and improved 
it immensely, till it contained all the existing litera- 
ture of the world ; and — why, they are deliberately 
concocting Christianity out of the books there ! and, 
so far as I can see, the Gospels are little better 
than Ovid's Metamorphoses (historically, I mean), — ■ 
so deliberately are they making up the new religion 
by replanting the old on the Jewish system. 

Write down these names and the dates which are 
specially shown me. Theophilus, patriarch of Alex- 

1 London, November 6, 1881. Spoken in trance. It was wholly inde- 
pendent of any knowledge or prepossession of either of us, — the subject 
being quite new to us, — and proved on subsequent research, while 
going far beyond history, to be in full accordance with history so far as 
history goes, and also with the results of independent and candid criti- 
cism. By "history" is not meant ecclesiastical tradition or invention. 






12 8 " Clothed with the Sun" 

andria, and Ambrosius. A.D. 390, B.C. 286. This last 
is the date at which the library was first of all got 
together. A.D. 390 1 is the-date of the chief destruction 
of the documents out of which the new religion was 
made. If they could be recovered we should have 
absolute proof of its concoction from Hindu, Persian, 
and other originals ; — the interpolations, extracts, and 
alterations proving this. They show, too, that the 
name first adopted for the typical man was more like 
Krishna, and that Jesus was a later choice, adopted 
at Jewish suggestion, in order to suit a Jewish hero. 
The system was long under formation, and it took all 
that time to perfect. 2 Every detail of the Gospel 
history is invented, the number of the apostles, and 
all the rest. Nothing is historical in the sense 
supposed. 

I see the Serapeum destroyed ; — not only the library 
but the temple, so fearful were they of leaving 
any trace of ihe concoction. It was destroyed by 
Christians at the instigation especially of Theodo*us, 
Ambrosius, and Theophilus. 3 Their motive was a 
mixed one, each of the leaders having a different aim. 
The object of the concoctors themselves was to 
sustain and continue the ancient faith by transplant- 
ing it to a new soil, and engrafting it on Judaism. 

1 The temple was destroyed A.D. 389. The library had never c* 

to exist, the Bruchium, at the time of its destruction, having overflowed 
into the Serapeum. The remnant was far exceeded by Ant 
additions from Pergamos, which thus became the virtual nucleus. 

2 There is an ambiguity here, owing to the date of the completion of 
the "concoction" not being specified. 

3 Theodosius was Emperor of the eastern division of the Roman 
Empire. Ambrosius was Archbishop of Milan. 



Concerning the Gospels. 129 

The object of Theophilus was to make the new 
religion the enemy and successor of the old, by 
making it appear to have an independent basis and 
origin. Ambrose destroyed the library in order to 
confute the Arians by leaving it to appear that 
Christianity had an origin altogether supernatural. 
The concoctors themselves did not intend it to be 
regarded as supernatural, but as representing the 
highest human. And they accordingly fixed and 
accumulated upon Jesus all that had been told of 
previous Christs, — Mithras, Osiris, Krishna, Buddha, 
and others, — the original draft containing the doctrine 
of the transmigration of souls most explicitly and 
distinctly. 1 The concoction was undertaken in order 
to save religion itself from extinction through the 
prevalence of materialism, — for the times corre- 
sponded in this respect exactly to the present. And 
the plan was to compose out of all the existing 
systems one new and complete, representing the 
highest possibilities and satisfying the highest aspira- 
tions of humanity. 

The great loss, then, is not that of the first but 
that of the second library of Alexandria. The 
Serapeum was destroyed by Christians in order to 
prevent the human origin of their religion from being 
ascertained. The object was to have it believed that 

1 The reason for the exclusion is not far to seek. ' There is no 
more (birth nor) death for those who are in Christ.' Transmigration 
being the condition of man unregenerate only, the gospels — which 
have for their purpose the exhibition of Man Regenerate — had no call 
to refer to the previous stages of his evolution. It is implied in the 
account of his birth of a virgin, as see Nos. XXIII., XXIV. 



130 u Clothed with the Sun." 

it all centered in one particular actual person, and 
was not collected and compiled from a multiplicity of 
sources. 

All the conversations in the Gospels were fabricated 
by the aid of various books in order to illustrate and 
enforce particular doctrines. I cannot recognise the 
language of many of the ancient manuscripts used. 
The Latin ones which I see are all in capitals, and 
without any division between the words, so that they 
look like one long word. 

I am shown the actual scene of the destruction of 
the library and dispersion of the books. There is a 
dreadful tumult. The streets of Alexandria are filled 
with mobs of people shouting and hastening to the 
spot. They do not know the rea '^ject. They have 
been told that the library contains the devil's books, 
which, if allowed to remain, will be the means 
destroying Christianity. The noise and tumult are 
dreadful. I cannot bear it; pray recall me, it hurts 
ne so. It is extraordinary how exactly alike ihe two 
times are both politically and religiously. Everything 
established is making up in both ; and that which 
comes out of each is the fuller revelation of the divine 
Idea of Humanity. All works for us and the new 
revelation. But the world suffers terribly in the 
birth. Afterwards things gradually become much 
better. 

*** In explanation of the method of this recovery it may be 
stated that, according to occult science, every event or circum- 
stance which has taken place upon the planet, has an .. 
counterpart, or picture, in the magnetic light. So that there are 



Concerning the Actual Jesus. 131 

actually ghosts of events as well as of persons. These magnetic 
existences are the Shades or Manes of past times, circumstances, 
acts, and thoughts, of which the planet has been the scene, and 
they can be conjured and evoked. The appearances left on such 
occasions are but shadows left on the protoplasmic mirror. 
"This magnetic atmosphere, or astral soul, is called the Anima 
Mundi\ and in it are stored up all the memories of the planet, 
its past life, its history, its affections and recollections of physical 
things. The adept may interrogate this phantom-world, and it 
shall speak for him. It is the cast-off vestment of the planet; 
yet it is living and palpitating, for its very fabric is spun of 
psychic substance, and its entire parenchyma is magnetic." — 
See No. XLV. ; *1so "The Perfect Way," Lecture V. par 39 
(R. and E. editL .,. Concerning the recovery of the individual 
memory, see No. XL. 



No. XXXIII. 

CONCERNING THE ACTUAL JESUS. 1 

I AM shown the Descent from the Cross. I see 
Jesus carried by Joseph of Arimathea to his 
house. The house communicates with a sepulchre ; 
and Jesus is carried to the house where they do some- 
thing to revive him ; for he has swooned rather than 
died. The clothes are placed in the sepulchre, but 
not Jesus. I see a rupture of the pericardium, but 
no fatal injury to the heart. I see plainly that he is 
not dead. There is no organic lesion ; and the wound 
heals like a simple wound, without suppuration, and 

1 London, March 22, 1881. Spoken in trance. See also No. XXIV. 



132 " Clothed with the Sun." 

by incessant bathing with water. What a lovely 
climate it is there ! and how curious that there should 
have been a Joseph at both birth and crucifixion ! 

I am now shown the truth respecting the birth of 
Jesus. It was most certainly an ordinary birth. I 
see that quite distinctly. The names are all altered. 
The birth-name of Jesus is not Jesus, or anything like 
it. Nothing is real as I havj thought it. Very little 
happens as related. The losing and finding in the 
temple, and the feeding of the five thousand are 
allegories of which the signification is spiritual. The 
miracles of the raising of the ruler's daughter and 
widow's son are real facts. Jesus saw clairvoyantly 
that the former was not dead, and that the body was 
uninjured by disease, so that the soul could return to 
it. For disease is gradual death, and when death 
occurs through it the soul is set free altogether. In 
violent or sudden death the soul is slow to get away, 
and the separation is a long proa 

In his own case Jesus instructed his friends before- 
hand what to do. Joseph of Arimathea was a friend 
of Mary Magdalen ; and she procured for him the 
requisite balms. I see her running with them through 
the sepulchre to the house. Jesus was not organi- 
cally dead at all, for the heart never ceased to beat. 
He foreknew all the particulars of the event, and 
provided accordingly. 

Nor is Jesus well again on the third day. He is at 
least ten days under treatment in Joseph's house. 
Three days is a mystical period, having no relation 
to actual time. All about him are women exce] t 



Concern ing the A ctual Jesus, 133 

one, the old man. Jesus' name begins with M. I 
do not see the rest of it. 

The perfected adept is he who has attained in 
himself the Philosopher's Stone of a spirit absolutely 
quiescent, and is in union with the Divine Will. 
Being without ardour, sympathy and compassion are 
for him but other names for Justice; and, incapable 
of anger, his temperament is always cool and equable. 
I now see faults in Jesus which I did not see before. 
I mean Jesus as he actually was, and not as he is 
depicted in the Gospels. They are faults from the 
adept's point of view. I am shown a passion-flower 
as the emblem of his character. He sacrificed him- 
self for others, but would have been able to do more 
had he been more careful, — especially in respect of 
his diet. His liability to give way continually to 
indignation or pity prevented him from getting 
higher. He allowed himself to be drawn too much 
out of himself to reach the highest possible. 

I see him bidding his followers good-bye. It is on 
a hill which he ascends, and he disappears from their 
view, lost in cloud or mist. He now becomes a 
hermit. I see him in the wilderness alone ; and 
there he attains the higher life which constituted his 
true ascension. 

Jesus was able to influence persons at a distance 
by means of an emanation which he projected from 
himself; so that it was not necessary for him to be 
dead when supposed to be seen by Paul. 

I now see some one with him on his mountain. It 
is John, writing down the Apocalypse at the dictation 



1 34 " Clothed with the SunT 

of Jesus. Jesus recollects all his past incarnations, 
and epitomises them in the Apocalypse, which is the 
history of his, and of every perfected soul. He is 
quite an old man at this time. 

And now I see the panther's skin of Bacchos, and 
whence Jesus got the name which has been given him 
of " Rabbi Ben Panther," and why he was said to be 
the son of one Panther. It is a play on Pan and 
thcos, and means all (he gods. The panther's skin 
represented the raiment, or attributes, of all the gods, 
with which Jesus, as a "Son of God," was held to be 
endowed. 

I am shown that there is but little of real value in 
the Scriptures. They are a mass of clay, comparatively 
modern, with here and there a bit of gold. The 
angel whom I saw before, and who told us to burn 
the Bible, 1 now puts it in the fire, and there cor: 
few pages only <>f matter which is original and divine. 
All the rest is interpolation or alteration. This 
the case with both Old Testament and New, [saiah 
and the prophet-, [saiah I mixture. I 

all fragments from various sources, just thr 
together. The book of Genesis is one large parable , 
and so are all the legends o{ the wanderings and wars 
of Israel. All is mixed up with fiction. M 
wrote none of it. And similarly with all the books 
of the Law and the prophets. All are made up in 
this manner. Here and there is an original 
the ancient Revelation, but these are largely inter- 
spersed with additions and embellishments, commen- 
1 In a vision received sometime pre\ i 



Concerning the Actual Jesus. 135 

taries, and applications to the times by copyists and 
interpreters. And when the angel told us to put the 
Bible in the fire, he meant separate the gold from the 
dross and clay. 

As for the gospels, they are almost entirely para- 
bolical. Religion is not historical, and in no wise 
depends upon past events. For, faith and redemp 
tion do not depend upon what any man did, but on 
what God has revealed. Jesus was not the historical 
name of the initiate and adept whose story is 
related. It is the name given him in initiation. 1 
His birth, the manner of it, his being lost and found 
by his parents in the temple, his lying three days in 
the tomb, — all are parabolic, as also is the story of 
the Ascension. The Scriptures are addressed to the 
soul, and make no appeal to the outer senses. The 
whole story of Jesus is a mass of parables, the things 
that occurred to him being used as symbols. Thus, the 
Crucifixion represents the soul's sufferings; the Resui- 
rection its transmutation ; and the life and Ascension 
are a prophecy of what is possible to man. 

The real original gospel is that of John. The 
others came long afterwards, and all were written 
long after the time of Jesus. Jesus partly wrote the 
Apocalypse by the hand of John as he sat with him 
on the mountain, and partly in the isle of Patmo . 
In both cases, Jesus, by his " angel," inspired John 
with his visions. This was many years after the 
" Ascension," as his disappearance on the hill was 
termed. The Apocalypse was rather a recovery than 

1 See Part II., XL, Hymn to Phoibos, v. 9. 



136 " Clothed with the Sun" 

an original composition of Jesus. The gospel life of 
Jesus is made up of the lives of all the divine teachers 
before him, and represents the best the world had 
then, and the best it has in it to be. And it is 
therefore a prophecy. The recorded life of Jesus 
epitomised all the teachers before him, and the 
possibilities of mankind some day to be realised. 

The " beautiful feet of the messengers on the 
mountains " are the first rays of the rising sun of the 
coming salvation, seen by the watchers from the 
spiritual heights, — the "shepherds who tend their 
flocks," — even their own pure hearts and thoughts. 
They it is who see from the " hills " the coming God, 
the demonstration of the divinity that is in humanity, 
while the world below is wrapped in darkness. 



NO. XXXIV. 
CONCERNING THE PREVIOUS LIVES OF JESUS. 1 

THIS morning between sleeping and waking I 
saw myself, together with many other persons, 
walking with Jesus in the fields round about Jer- 
usalem, and while he was speaking to us. a man 
approached, who looked very earnestly upon him. 
And Jesus turned to us and said, "This man whom 
you see approaching is a seer. He can behold the 
past lives of a man by looking into his face." Then, 

1 Paris, February 7. 1SS0. 



Concerning the Previous Lives of Jesus, 137 

the man being come up to us, Jesus took him by the 
hand and said, " What readest thou ? " And the man 
answered, "I see thy past, Lord Jesus, and the ways 
by which thou hast come." And Jesus said to him, 
" Say on." So the man told Jesus that he could see 
him in the past for many long ages back. But of all 
that he named, I remember but one incarnation, or, 
perhaps, one only struck me, and that was Isaac. 
And as the man went on speaking, and enumerating 
the incarnations he saw, Jesus waved his right hand 
twice or thrice before his eyes, and said, " It is 
enough," as though he wished him not to reveal 
further. Then I stepped forward from the rest and 
said, "Lord, if, as thou hast taught us, the woman is 
the highest form of humanity, and the last to be 
assumed, how comes it that thou, the Christ, art still 
in the lower form of man ? Why comest thou not to 
lead the perfect life, and to save the world as woman ? 
For surely, thou hast attained to womanhood." And 
Jesus answered, " I have attained to womanhood, as 
thou sayest ; and already have I taken the form of 
woman. But there are three conditions under which the 
soul returns to the man's form; and they are these: — 

" 1st. When the work which the Spirit proposes to 
accomplish is of a nature unsuitable to the female form. 

" 2nd. When the Spirit has failed to acquire, in the 
degree necessary to perfection, certain special attri- 
butes of the male character. 

" 3rd. When the Spirit has transgressed, and gone 
back in the path of perfection, by degrading the 
womanhood it had attained. 



138 " Clothed with the Sun!' 

" In the first of these cases the return to the male 
form is outward and superficial only. This is my 
case. I am a woman in all save the body. But had 
my body been a woman's, I could not have led the 
life necessary to the work I have to perform. I could 
not have trod the rough ways of the earth, nor have 
gone about from city to city preaching, nor have 
fasted on the mountains, nor have fulfilled my mission 
of poverty and labour. Therefore am I — a woman 
— clothed in a man's body th?t I may be enabled to 
do the work set before me. 

" The second case is that of a soul who, having 
been a woman perhaps ma ly times, has acquired 
more aptly and readily the higher qualities of woman- 
hood than the lower qualities of manhood. Such a 
soul is lacking in energy, i M resoluteness, in that par- 
ticular attribute of the Spirit which the prophet 
ascribes to the Lord v h n he says, ' The Lord is a 
Man of war. 1 Theref'/'C the soul is put back into a 
man's form to acquis the qualities yet lacking. 

"The third oa>*£ is that o( the backslider, who, 
having nearly attained perfection, — perhaps even 
touched it, — degrades and soils his white robe, and 
is put back into the lower form again. These are 
the common tor there are few women who are 

worthy to be women." 

I was distinctly and posith -.red that the 

incident thus shown me was one that act;. 
curred, and that 1 had borne part in it, though ne 
record of it survives. 



Concerning Ike Holy Family. 139 

No. XXXV. 

CONCERNING THE HOLY FAMILY. 1 

THERE were two subjects, on which I was de- 
siring light, the explanation of which came to 
me in a curious manner. They were (1) The real sig- 
nification of the gospel account of the parentage and 
childhood of Jesus, which we have seen reason to re- 
gard as mystical and unliteral ; and (2) The faculty 
of divination by means of the crystal or cup. I had 
just awoke, and was on the point of drinking my 
usual cup of coffee, when I was astonished by seeing 
in the liquid some words, while at the same instant 
there was flashed upon my mind a full view and ex- 
planation of the meaning of the Holy Family ; and 
this is what I received. 

"This is 2 the divining cup of Joseph, who repre- 
sented the spiritual Egypt of Israel's infancy. Egypt 
was the spiritual father of Jesus, his spiritual mother, 
Mary, being Israel's pure intuition of God, and " virgin 
daughter of Sion." 3 Being of Jewish birth, Jesus went 

1 Paris, October 27, 1878. 

2 Meaning, of course, answers to ; the effect of a bright surface, as 
that of a crystal, disc, or fluid, being so to magnetise the sensitive as 
to render objective any images or ideas previously subjective whether in 
his own or in another's magnetic atmosphere, or in that of the planet, 
this last being the anima mundi. See note at end of No. XXXII. 

In this aspect Mary is the soul collective instead of individual only. 



140 '" Clothed with the Sun? 

into Egypt to be initiated in the sacred mysteries of 
the country from which, through Moses, the Israelites 
originally obtained their religion. Of that religion 
and those mysteries, Jesus, as a Christ, was the pro- 
duct. For their object was the production of a man 
so perfected through the development of his mind and 
spirit, as to realise the divine idea of humanity. As 
a full initiate and adept, a hierarch or "master" of 
the mysteries, Jesus returned to Judaea to fulfil his 
mission, receiving at the hands of John — a prophet of 
the Esscnes, who were followers of the same mysteries 
— his baptism of the Spirit. 

Joseph, therefore, represents Egypt, — not, however, 
as denoting the body, 1 but the mind, — and is an old 
man because Egypt was the senior of Israel, and also 
because, in the evolution of man, the mind precedes 
the soul in manifestation. And in having him lor 
his foster-father, Jesus is set forth as adopting the 
wisdom and elder religion of Egypt, to incorporate 
them with the Jewish. Joseph, moreover, in being 
elderly and a widower,- represents Eg) pt in respect of 
its past youth and lost prime. That he is not shown 
as the true spouse of Mary, or real father of her son, 
is because, though the mind may aid these by its 
knowledge and wisdom, the true spouse o\ the soul 
is the Divine Spirit, who is thus the true father of the 



1 See Part II., XIII., Hymn to the Planet-God (6). 
* According to Christian tradition. 



Concerning the Metempsychosis or Avatar. 141 
No. XXXVI. 

CONCERNING THE METEMPSYCHOSIS OR AVATAR. 1 

METEMPSYCHOSIS means, in its chief aspect, 
not transmigration which is of souls, but the 
vivification or illumination of a soul already incarnate 
by the spirit of a preceding " angel." Thus, the 
soul of Jesus was overshadowed by the angel of 
Moses. 

The Word, Logos, or Adonai — for they are the same 
— speaks in the spirit of one or the other of the Gods 
of the Seven Spheres. He spoke through the Spirit, ' 
or God, of the Fourth Sphere — Dionysos or Iacchos — 
to Noah, Moses, and Jesus. Nevertheless Jesus was 
not an incarnation of either of these, and when he 
said, " Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day," 
he spoke, in one sense, 2 of his own former birth as 
Isaac. For Jesus was a transmigration or re-incarna- 
tion of the soul of Isaac, and the two names are 
occultly related. 

The metempsychosis constitutes a planetary Avatar. 
The number of these is variously stated to be ten 
and twelve. Both are, in a sense, right. There are ten 
such Avatars and twelve angels, or messengers, for the 

1 London, March 1881. Spoken in trance. 

2 Another sense was Abraham's recognition of the doctrine implied 
by the term " Christ." In their profoundest and most interior meati- 
ing the Patriarchs represent the component elements of the planetary 
divinity. 



142 " Clothed with the Sun" 

first and last are dual or "twins." The pair at the 
first Avatar were "Eve" and "Adam," — for this also 
is one sense of the allegory. The Avatars and their 
angels have their corresponding signs in the Zodiac, 
the double ones being represented by the double signs 
Gemini and Pisces. The latter Avatar, now at hand, 
will introduce Aquarius, "the sign of the Son of Man 
in Heaven." Heracles is an epitome of the " twelve 
Avatars of the Lord." Each of his labours— the 
labours, that is, of the soul — represents a divine 
operation, and constitutes an Avatar, while its sign 
in the Zodiac corresponds to the nature of the 
Labour. These signs represent the twelve gates of 
the Holy City, or perfected kosmos, and the 
twelve mysteries of the greater initiation ; and the 
gates are spoken of as pearls, because pearls are 
found at the sea-bottom, and in oysters, which are 
difficult to get and hard to open ; and the sea 
represents the Holy Spirit and the soul. In order 
to obtain these twelve mysteries, one must be at 
great labour and trouble, risking one's life in diving 
for them, going down into the sea naked and 
stripped of all things, finding them in obscurity and 
darkness, and when they are brought up, requiring a 
keen blade to open them. 

The "twelve apostles" are types of these a 
and mysteries. John represents the dual messenger to 
come. And by a metempsychosis corresponding to 
that by which the spirit of Moses instructed Jesus, 
the spirit of John will instruct the angel of the new 
Avatar. This spirit is dual. For John represents 



? 



Concerning the Metempsychosis or Avatar. 143 

both the Virgin and himself. This is the " mother " 
referred to by Jesus at his crucifixion. John comprises 
the feminine as well as the masculine element. His 
inspiring spirit is the same as that of Daniel. The 
spirit that informed Noah, Moses, and Jesus is 
5 / y Dionysos (Jehovah Nissi), the God of the planet. 
And the spirit which informed Daniel and John, and 
will inform the angel of this century, is Michael, 
who represents Zeus and Hera, or the planet 
Jupiter. 1 

That which comes back as a messenger or angel, 
is not the personal soul of the individual man 
employed ; for that has become transmuted into 
spirit. Nor does the spirit itself which was in that 
soul become re-incarnate. That which comes is the 
overshadowing, informing spirit who influenced and 
spoke through the man in his lifetime, and the man 
himself also, who has become an angel, or pure 
spirit, and who no longer needs the body. So that 
his return is voluntary, and his coming an Avatar. 
The new Avatar will be of the double or over- 
shadowing spirit of Daniel and John, as well as the 
spirit which was in those men. For, owing to the 
union between them, the two — the man's spirit and 
the divine spirit — are so much one as to be scarcely 
distinguishable ; and the God speaks through the 

1 See Daniel x. 21 and xii. I, and Apoc. xii. 7. That Michael is 
by many regarded as the angel of the' sun, is probably from their 
taking him to be the "angel standing in the sun" of Apoc. xix. 
17. But even so, the position would not imply more than a temporary 
presidency. 



144 " Clothed with the Sun." 

man's spirit It is as a tube within a tube. God 
speaks through the Logos, the Logos through an 
Elohc, and the Elohe through the perfected spirit of 
a former prophet. But of this last it is a metempsy- 
chosis, not a transmigration or re-incarnation. That 
is, the spirit returning informs the spirit of one 
already incarnate, and who, like John the Baptist, 
may be thus used without being himself regenerate 
and * in the kingdom of God." 



No. XXXVII 

CONCERNING THE M >N OF THE CHRIST. 1 

THE Christs are above all things nicdia, and the 
various descriptions they gave of their office — 
such as "lam the way, the truth, and the life," "I 
am the door," and the like — referred not to themselves 
at all, but to the Spirit who spoke through them. 
Jesus, when questioned on this very subject, said 
plainly, "The words which I speak unto you I speak- 
not of myself; but the Father which dwelleth in me. 
he doeth the works." Jesus, then, spoke as he was 
moved by the Holy Ghost, and was no other than a 
clear glass through which the divine glory shone [As 
it is written, " And we beheld his glory, the glory as 
of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
truth " Mow, he Only Begotten is not mortal man, 

1 London, 1SS1. Received in sleep. 



Concerning the Aion of the Christ. 145 

but he who has been in the bosom of the Father 
from all eternity, even the Word, the Maker, the 
Speaker, the Manifestor.] It was this Holy Spirit 
which descended upon Jesus at his baptism, and 
dwelt in him for the time of his sojourn upon earth, 
speaking through him and controlling him ; while 
he, on his part, so lived as to bring all his personal 
will into oneness with that Spirit. 

The Spirit answers to the Essence, the Father, and 
the Word. Of these, the first is one of the seven 
spirits, or divine flames, of universal Divinity. The 
second is the angel, or God, of the planet, and is the 
^Eon of the Christ. The third is the Christ. They 
are respectively " the spirit, the water, 1 and the 
blood." The Father and the Word may therefore 
be said to be one ; for by the Word the Father is 
manifest, and — in the microcosm — the Word is the 
Father manifested. 

The greatest hierarch — he, that is, who has the 
most perfect control over Nature — is not only a man 
of many incarnations, but has obtained from God the 
greatest and rarest of gifts, — that of being a medium 
for the Highest. Such a one is the yEon, 2 and has 
what is called the " double portion." Elisha craved 
and received this grace. " Where now is the God of 
Elijah?" he cried, when endeavouring to work his 

1 A term which, as here used, implies also the "mother," " water" 
denoting especially the substance or feminine principle, as distinguished 
from the energy or masculine principle. 

2 The person who receives the Alow being called an iHon, as theper« 
son who manifests the Christ is called a Christ. 



1 46 " Clothed with the Sim.* 9 

first miracle ; and he besought Elijah that a portion 
of his double 1 might rest upon him. For Elijah had 
so transmuted his soul into spirit that it was doubled, 
and a portion of this he bestowed on Elisha. Such 
an ^Eon it was that descended upon Jesus, to quit 
him at the final moment. Hence the exclamation, 
" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " 



No. XXXVIII. 
CONCERNING THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE. 2 

ONE of the most dangerous mysteries to place in 
the hands of the vulgar is that of the doctrine of 
grace. When once union has been accomplished be- 
tween the human and the divine wills, there is grace. 
And the man under grace cannot sin mortally. 
Conformity between the human and the divine wills 
is the condition of salvation, and salvation is not 
forfeited through any specific act. unless such act be 
wilful and indicate a condition of rebellion. 

Of a man under grace, David is a type. 1 1 is heart 
was right with God ; his intuition was un fallen. So 
that even his many and grievous sins did not, and 
could not, alienate him from God. The man who is 
deliberately in opposition to the divine will is in far 
greater danger than the man who, having a true in- 
tuition, sins more flagranti}-. It is not by a specific 

1 This is not the magnetic phantom ordinarily so-called. 
■ London, December 1SS0. Spoken in trance. 



Concerning the " Four Atmospheres" 147 

act, or many specific acts, that the soul is destroyed ; 
but by a state of heart in constant opposition to 
the divine will. Hence the axiom of the Calvinist, 
" If you are under grace you cannot sin," — that is, 
mortally. 

*V* Whence one reason for the appellation "Son of David" 
applied to the Christ. The man must first be "under grace" 
before he can become regenerate. It is an indispensable step 
in his soul's progress. Wherefore the latter is said to be the 
son of the former. 



No. XXXIX. 

CONCERNING THE "FOUR ATMOSPHERES." 1 

THE earthly mind (anima bnita) is that part of 
man which contains his material memory, 
abilities, affections, cares, acquirements, and the 
images bred of his associations in each particular 
incarnation. This mind is shed with the body and 
shade, and is — as it were — an individual in itself. It 
inhabits the astral sphere and cannot get beyond it ; 
nor does it ever return to earth (embodied), but dwells 
perhaps for many centuries, in the magnetic light, 
which it takes for heaven, seeking its own affinities 
and frequenting the places and persons familiar to it. 
But the soul — or anima divina, which is the true man — 
has another destiny than this. It leaves its body on 

1 London, August 1881. Received in sleep. 



1 48 * Clothed with the Sun." 

earth, its shade and its earthly mind in the astral 
sphere, and mounts to its own proper higher region, 
until the time comes for it either to pass into Nirvana, 
or to become again incarnate. The soul retains the 
celestial memory ; — that memory only in which lives 
such of its past as is worthy to live, and is not of an 
ephemeral nature, — its knowledges, virtues, and true 
loves. The only anections, therefore, which live 
eternally are those of the soul, — those which have 
struck deep into the man and made part of his in- 
most being. The loves of the mere body or earthly 
mind die with these, and form no part of the per- 
manent man. True it is that some souls are retained 
in their phantoms for a time more or less long, not 
being pure — or, rather, not strong — enough to mount 
higher. But being in the astral sphere they cannot 
see beyond it, and — like the astral phantom — believe 
they are at their journey's end. The larva, or shade, 
is not the same as the phantom seen by the ordinary 
lucid. For the two are separable, and the shade 
occupies a yet lower atmosphere. After a little while, 
moreover, the shade consumes away and disappears; 
but the phantom with which the lucid converses, re- 
mains as strong and individual as ever, it may be for 
centuries. For not only the recently dead, but some 
who lived and died before the Christian era, have 
been evoked and conversed with, and these are 
not mere reflects (like the purely astral entities which 
are emanations from the living), since they reason and 
remember, and give proofs of their identity. The 
ordinary lucid obtains access to them only because he 



Concerning the "Four Atmospheres" 149 

is himself in the astral when in the lucid condition, 
and sees, therefore, only what is there. To enter the 
heavenly sphere, and to come into communion with 
souls, a regenerated state is necessary. Now, the 
sphere entered depends, not alone on the lucid, but 
also on the magnetiser 1 and the circle present at the 
experience. There are four atmospheres surrounding 
us, and only in the highest of these do we find the 
freed soul. Each sphere is the counterpart of each 
portion of man, and each has its system and its sun. 
Interior knowledge, earnest aspiration, and purity of 
thought and life, are the keys by which alone can be 
opened the gates of the inmost and highest sphere. 
The lowest is enlightened by the material sun. It is 
that of the present life of the body. The next is 
enlightened by the astral or magnetic light ; and it is 
that of the sideral body or perisoul. The next is 
that of the soul, and it is enlightened by the spiritual 
sun. And the highest is the immediate presence of 
the Lord God, where is the ' ; great white throne " and 
the company of the "virgins." Now, the "virgins" 
are souls which, being perfectly spiritualised, retain 
no taint of materiality. 2 

1 This is not necessarily a corporeal, or even an extraneous, being, 
but may be the spirit of the lucid himself. 

2 See Apoc. xiv. 4, where they are called virgins in virtue of their 
having overcome the need of sexual relations prior to their final incar- 
nations as in No. XXIV., par. 4. The term ''women" was some- 
times used as a general term for things material. See also " Dreams 
and Dream-Stories," No. IX. / 






150 " Clothed with the Sztn" 

No. XL. 

CONCERNING THE HEREAFTER. 1 

WHEN a man parts at death with his material 
body, that of him which survives is divisible 
into three parts, the anima divina, or. as in the 
Hebrew, Neshamah ; the anima brnta, or Ruach, 
which is the persona of the man ; and the shade, 
or Nephcsh, which is the lowest mode of soul sub- 
stance. In the great majority of persons the con- 
sciousness is gathered up and centered in the anima 
bniia y or Ruach ; in the few wise it is polarised in the 
anima divina. Now, that part of man which pa- 
through, or transmigrates, — the process whereof is 
called by the Hebrews Gilgal Neshamoth, — is the 
anima divina, which is the immediate receptacle of 
the deific Spirit. And whereas there is in the world 
nothing save the human, actual or potential, the 
Neshamah subsists also in animals, though only as 
a mere spark, their consciousness being therefore 
rudimentary and diffuse. It is the Neshamah which 
finally escapes from the world and is redeemed into 
eternal life. The anima bmta, or earthly mind, is 
that part of man which retains all earthly and local 
memories, reminiscent affections, cares and personali- 

1 London, July 1SS1. Received in sleep, in timely and satisfactory 
solution of sundry perplexing experiences ; and subsequently found to 
be a concise statement of the doctrine of the Kabala. 



Concerning the Hereafter. 1 5 1 

ties of the world or planetary sphere, and bears his 
family or earth-name. After death this anima bruta, 
or Ruach, remains in the "lower Eden," within sight 
and call of the magnetic earth-sphere. But the 
anima divina, or Neshamah, — the name of which 
is known only to God, — passes upwards and con- 
tinues its evolutions, bearing with it only a small 
portion, and that the purest, of the outer soul, or 
mind. This anima divina is the true man. It is not 
within hail of the magnetic atmosphere ; and only on 
the rarest and most solemn occasions does it return to 
the planet unclothed. The astral shade, the Nephesh, 
is dumb ; the earthly soul, the anima bruta, or Ruach, 
speaks and remembers; the divine soul, the Neshamah, 
which contains the divine light, neither returns nor 
communicates, that is, in the ordinary way. That 
which the anima bruta remembers, is the history of 
one incarnation only, because it is part of the astral 
man, and the astral man is renewed at every incarna- 
tion of the Neshamah. But very advanced men 
become re-incarnate, not on this planet, but on some 
other nearer the sun. The anima bruta has lived but 
once, and will never be re-incarnate. It continues in 
the " lower Eden," a personality in relation to the 
earth, and retaining the memories, both good and 
bad, of its one past life. If it have done evil, it 
suffers indeed, but is not condemned ; if it have done 
well, it is happy, but not beatified. It continues in 
thought its favourite pursuits of earth, and creates for 
itself houses, gardens, flowers, books, and so forth, 
out of the astral light. It remains in this condition 



152 " Clothed with the Sun* 

more or loss strongly defined, according to the per- 
sonality it. I id acquired, until the anivia divina, one 
of whose temples it was, has accomplished all its 
avatars. Then, with all the other eaithly souls be- 
longing to that divine soul, it is drawn up into the 
celestial Eden, or upper heaven, and returns into the 
essence of the Neshamah. But all of it does, not 
return; only the good memories; the bad sink 
to the lowest stratum of the astral light, where 
they disintegrate. For, if the divine soul were 
permanently, in its perfected state, to retain the 
memories of all its evil doings, its misfortunes, 
its earthly griefs, its earthly loves, it would not 
be perfectly happy. Therefore, only those loves and 
memories return to the Neshamah, which have pene- 
trated the earthly soul sufficiently to reach the divine 
soul, and to make part of the man. It is said that 
all marriages are made in Heaven. This means that 
all true love unions are made in the celestial within 
the man. The mere affections of the anima brutazre 
evanescent, and belong only to it. When this, the 
Ruach, is interrogated, it can speak only of one life, 
for it has lived but one. Of that one it retains all the 
memories and all the affections. If these have been 
strong, it remains near those persons whom especially 
it loved, and overshadows them. A single Neshamah 
may have as many of these former selves in the 
astral light, as a man may have changes of raiment. 
But when the divine soul is perfected, and about to 
be received into "the Sun/' or Nirvana, she indraws 
all these past selves, and possesses herself of their 



Concerning the Hereafter, 153 

memories ; but only of the worthy parts of these, 
and such as will not deprive her of eternal calm. 
In " the planets," the soul forgets ; in "the suns," she 
remembers. For, in memorid ceterna erit Justus} 
Not until a man has accomplished his regeneration, 
and become a son of God, a Christ, can he have these 
memories of his past lives. Such memories as a man, 
on the upward path, can have of his past incarnations, 
are by reflection only ; and the memories are not of 
events usually, but of principles and truths, and habits 
formerly acquired. If these memories relate to 
events, they are vague and fitful, because they are 
reflections from the overshadowing of his former 
selves in the astral light. For the former selves — the 
deserted temples of the anima divina — frequent her 
sphere and are attracted towards her, especially under 
certain conditions. From them she learns through 
the intermediary of the genius, or " moon," who lights 
up the camera obscura of the mind, and reflects on its 
tablet the memories cast by the overshadowing past. 
The anima bruta, or Ruach, seems to itself to progress, 
because it has a vague sense that sooner or later it 
will be lifted to higher spheres. But of the method 
of this it is ignorant, because it can only know the 
celestial by union with it. The learning which makes 
it seem to itself to progress is acquired by reflected 
soul-rays coming from the terrestrial. Advanced 
men on the earth assist and teach the astral soul, 
and hence its fondness for their spheres. It learns 
by reflected intellectual images, or thoughts. The 
1 Ps. cxii. 6, 



154 " Clothed with the Sun? 

Ruach is right when it says it is immortal. For 
the better part of it will in the end be absorbed 
into the Neshamah. But if one interrogate a Ruach 
of even two or three centuries old, it seldom knows 
more than it knew in its earth-life, unless, indeed, 
it gain fresh knowledge from its interrogator. The 
reason why some communications are astral, and others 
celestial, is simply that some persons — the greater 
number — communicate by means of the anima brut a 
in themselves; and others — the few purified — by means 
of their anima divina. For, like attracts like. The 
earthly souls of animals are rarely met with ; they 
come into communion with animals rather than with 
man, unless an affection between a man and an 
animal have been very strong. If a man would meet 
and recognise his beloved in Nirvana, he must make 
his affection one of the Neshamah, not of the Ruach. 
There arc many degrees of love. True love is stronger 
than a thousand deaths ; for, though one die a thou- 
sand times, a single love may yet perpetuate itself 
past every death from birth to birth, growing and 
culminating in intensity and might. 

Now, all these three, Nephesh, Ruach, and Nes- 
hamah, are discrete modes of one and the same 
universal being, which is at once life and substance, 
and is instinct with consciousness, inasmuch as it is, 
under whatever mode, Holy Spirit. Wherefore, there 
inheres in them all a divine potency. Evolution, 
which is the manifestation oi that which is inherent, 
is the manifestation of this potency. The first formu- 



Concerning the Hereafter. 155 

lation of this inherency, above the plane of the 
material, is the Nephesh, this being the soul by which 
are impelled the lower and earlier forms of life. 
It is the "moving" soul that breathes and kindles. 
The next — the Ruach — is the " wind " that rushes 
forth to vivify the mind. Higher, because more 
inward and central, is the Neshamah, which, borne on 
the bosom of the Ruach, is the immediate receptacle 
of the Divine particle, and without which this cannot 
be individualised and become an indiffusible per- 
sonality. Both the " wind " and the " flame " are 
spirit ; but the wind is general, the flame particular. 
The wind fills the house; the flame designates the 
person. The wind is the Divine Voice resounding in 
the ear of the Apostle and passing away where it 
listeth; the flame is the Divine Tongue uttering 
itself in the word of the Apostle. Thus, then, in the 
soul impersonal are perceived the breath and afflatus 
of God ; but in the soul personal is the formulate and 
express utterance of God. Now, both of Nephesh 
and Ruach, that which is gathered up and endures is 
Neshamah. 



156 u Clothed with the Sun" 

No. XLI. 

CONCERNING THE TRUE EGO. 1 

[This Illumination followed upon a meditation on the following 
passage from G. H. Lewes : "The evolution of organisms, like 
the evolution of crystals, or of islands and continents, is deter- 
mined, first, by laws inherent in the substance evolved ; 
secondly, by relations to the medium in which the evolution 
takes place."] 

r I ^HERE is a law inherent in the primordial 
-L substance of all matter which obliges all things 
to evoke after the same mode and manner. The 
worlds in the infinite abyss of heaven are in all 
respects similar to the cells in vegetable or animal 
tissue. Their evolution is similar, their distribution 
similar, and their mutual relations are .similar. Where- 
fore, by the study of the natural sciences, the truth 
may be learnt, not only in regard to these, but in 
regard also to the occult sciences ; for the facts of the 
first are as a mirror to the facts of the last And 
just what the spiritual Ego is to the physical man, is 
God to the manifest universe, — its spirit, dwelling in 
and pervading it; no more, no less. 

1 Paris, December 6, 1SS2. Having previously studied materialistic 
science in Paris, Mrs Kingston] returned thhher to study materialistic 

philosophy, when this and the following Illuminations, to No. XJ.YIl. 
inclusive, were received by her in elucidation of the subjects studied, 
and in correction of the doctrine enunciated by her professor. The 
Illuminations were received chiefly in sleep. 



Concerning the True Ego. 157 

And as for the souls of the planets, let us enquire 
awhile what, as an individual, thou art. Thy soul is 
constituted of the agglomerate essences of all the 
individual consciousnesses composing thy system. It 
has, then, grown,- — evolving gradually from rudi- 
mentary entities, themselves evolved by polarisation 
from mineral and gaseous matter. And these entities 
combine and coalesce to form higher entities, the 
combined forces of their manifold consciousnesses 
polarising and centralising so as to form the human 
soul. In the same way, the souls of the planets are 
formed by the agglomeration and combination of the 
myriad souls composing them, these souls ranging 
from the mineral to the human group, and thus com- 
posing the four principles of each planet's kingdom. 
Each planetary God is, therefore, not a supernatural, 
extraneous personage, but is the sum total of the 
souls composing the planet. His physical body is the 
visible planet and its phenomena. His astral body 
and mind are the plant and animal intelligences. His 
soul is man's superior reason ; and his spirit is divine, 
being the Nous of the man. And as when we speak 
of the planet-god, we specially mean that Nous, it is 
said with truth that our divine part is no other than 
the planet-god, — in our case Dio-Nysos, the god of 
the emerald. / J ' /y 5J 

And again, such as are all creatures composing the 
planet to the planet, such also are the planets to the 
universe, and, in consequence, such are the Gods to 
GOD. 

The primordial God is the sum total of all the 



1 5 3 " Clothed with the Sun!' 

Gods. The Spirit of God is the agglomerate essences 
of all the deities. To pray to God is to address all 
the Celestial Host, and, by inclusion, all the spirits of 
just men. 

But the Gods are not limited in number. For 
human convenience they are called seven, or twelve, 
or twenty-four, or seventy ; but these are names of 
orders only. Beyond number are the orbs in infinite 
space, and each of these is a God. Phoibos is legion, 
so also is Hermes, so also Aphrodite, so also Diony- 
sos, so also Ares, Zeus, Hera, Kronos, and the rest. 
Phoibos is the spirit of all the suns ; Poseidon, of all 
the seas ; and each divinity has his quality, corres- 
ponding to the conditions of the elements which 
compose his kingdom. 

To every planet belongs a different spectrum, and 
the physical is the measure of the spiritual. And 
every physical world of causes has its spiritual world 
of effects. 

Now, the world of causes is the material and the 
astral, and the world of effects is the psychic. There- 
fore it may be said that the soul is the effect of the 
body, for organism is before function, and the mineral 
before man. And yet it is true that organism is the 
effect of idea, and that mind is the cause of evolution. 
So that spirit is before matter in its abstract, but not 
in its concrete conception. All things are begotten 
by fission or section in a universal blastoderm or 
protoplast, and the power which causes this genera- 
tion is centrifugal. 



Concerning God. 159 

No. XLII. 

CONCERNING GOD. 1 

BUT why should we be at the pains to seek further 
than the phenomenal ? Why this incessant 
craving to prove ourselves immortal, and to argue a 
God into the universe ? 

The answer is manifold, because the appeal is to 
nature, to reason, and to principle. First, evolution, 
as revealed by the facts of physical science, is in- 
explicable on the material hypothesis ; as equally 
also are the facts of occult science and experience. 
Secondly, it has been proved that mind in man anti- 
cipates the demonstration of natural laws, and argues 
by mathematical and logical induction that what is 
ought to be, while yet the actual fact is undiscovered. 
It is thus evident that mind, greater than and yet 
identical with man's intelligence, has preceded pheno- 
menon. Thirdly, the primary principle in the sane 
mind, justice, demands satisfaction, and insists that 
rectitude of intelligence infers also rectitude of spirit. 
And if this be conceded, all the rest follows. What, 
then, must we conceive — positing this indefeasible 
principle of justice as the central sun of our philo- 
sophical system ? Equity on all planes, and a perfect 
correspondence and balance between physical and 
spiritual; between the world of causes and the world 

1 Paris, December 8, 9, 1882. 



160 " Clothed with the Sun.* 

of effects. Justice is represented by the dual balance, 
of which one scale is spirit and the other matter; one 
male and the other female ; without which dual prin- 
ciple the system of the balance itself would be impos- 
sible. The balance is unity ; the scales are the duad. 

What, then, is God? Spirit; essential substance. 
Is God, then, impersonal? Impersonal if the word 
persona be taken in its radical meaning, but personal 
in the highest and truest sense of that word if the 
conception be of essential consciousness. For God 
has no limitations. God is a pure and naked fire burn- 
ing in infinity, whereof a flame subsists in all creatures. 
The Kosmos is a tree having innumerable blanches, 
each connected with and springing out of various 
boughs, and these again originating in one stem, and 
nourished by one root. And God is as a lire burning 
in this tree, and yet consuming it not. God is 
"I AM." Such is the nature of infinite and essential 
being. And such is God in the beginning before the 
worlds. 

What, then, is the purpose of evolution and separa- 
tion into main- forms ? Life is the elaboration of soul 
tJirougli the varied transformations of matter. 

Spirit is essential and perfect in itself, having 
neither end nor beginning. Spirit is abstract. Soul 
is secondary and perfected, being begotten of spirit. 
Soul is concrete. And the whole object of creation 
or manifestation is the evolution of souls. Spirit is 
the primary Adam ; soul is Eve, the woman, taken 
out of the side of the man. Spirit is the first prin- 
ciple ; soul is the derivative. 



Concerning God. 161 

Now, the essential principle of personality or con- 
sciousness — the higher personality — is spirit. And 
this personality is God. Wherefore the higher and 
interior personality of every monad is God. But this 
primary principle, being naked essence, could not be 
separated off into individuals unless contained and 
limited by a secondary principle. This principle, 
being derived and not essential, must be evolved. 
Spirit, therefore, is projected into matter in order that 
soul may be begotten thereby. 

Soul is begotten in matter by means of polarisation. 
And spirit, of which all matter consists, returns to its 
essential nature in soul. Soul is the medium by 
which spirit is individuated, and in which it becomes 
concrete. So that by means of creation, God the One 
becomes God the Many. And the object set before 
the saint is so to live as to render the soul luminous 
and consolidate with the spirit, that thereby the 
spirit may be perpetually one with the soul, and 
thus eternise its individuality. 

For personality is of and in the spirit ; but in- 
dividuality appertains to the soul. But for creation 
there would be one vast diffused and unindividuated 
consciousness, contained in one vast xiiffused sub- 
stance. Of this substance all things consist by means 
of this force or spirit ; and the soul grows up out of 
matter by means of evolution ; — that is, by the inherent 
force acting on the manifest substance. And thus the 
soul is born in the womb of matter, and within her is 
conceived the personal element which, divided from 
God, is yet God and man. For God is not multiplied 

L 



1 62 " Clothed with the Sttn." 

neither diminished ; but God is separated into many. 
The matter is the wax, the soul is the wick, and God 
is the flame which illumines. If they ask thee the 
reason of creation, thou shalt answer, — The evolution 
and elaboration of the soul 

Anna is the rolling year, the Time, of which is born 
Maria the soul, the mother of God. God is the first 
of the ten categories of Aristotle, 1 as the number 
one is the root of all numbers. Thcu canst not begin 
the tables with the duad, because the unity is the 
primal idea. Therefore this unity is positive and 
essential in necessity. 

To God everything is good ; it is only to men that 
evil appears positive. As it is written, " I am the 
Lord, and there is none else ; I form the light and 
create darkness ; I make peace and create evil ; I the 
Lord do all these things." For that which differenti- 
ates evil from good is the plane of the action, and the 
medium in which the thought is conceived. If thou 
love from the plane of the spirit through the medium 
of the soul, thou lovest as Christ loveth. But if thou 
love from the plane of the astral man, through the 
medium of the bod}-, thou hast lust And. again, if 
spirit desire aught, it desires that which is like i:- 
spi ritual, and its treasure is in heaven : this is 
aspiration. But if the plane oi desire be the astral, 
the medium of desire is material, and the material 
desireth matter, that is, riches upon earth. This 
avarice. And again, the passion of the spirit 
fierce upward burning towards spirit ; a force bursting 
1 QvaLa, original substance or simple being ; the I 



Concerning God. 163 

forth and leaping into life ; a vehement talcing of 
heaven by heavenly violence. This is zeal. But 
the passion of the astral is a fierce burning down- 
ward through the body ; a force translating itself in 
material action ; a furious and blind collision of 
matter with matter. This eventuates in murder. 
See, then, that according to the plane and the 
medium, so is an act- good or evil. There is nothing 
truly evil in its essential idea ; for, primarily, all is 
good, because the primary is spirit. 

(In answer to questions.) Any desire or act of the 
body that does not profit the mind, that is sensuality. 

It is necessary that certain interior mysteries 
belonging to the Celestial be kept secret, because if 
they should be given to the people the mysteries 
would all speedily become materialised, and so lost. 
But if they be confided to a few Wise, and transmitted 
only to the Initiate, they will be preserved in their 
true meaning. And again, if these wise men betray 
their secret, the uninitiated would lay violent hands 
on them, and so they and the secret would perish 
together. But when the majority are wise, then may 
the mysteries be told openly. 1 

1 The fact that the mysteries have been disclosed anew expressly in 
order that they may be made generally known, is by no means to be 
interpreted as an indication that in the view of their guardians the time 
has come when the " majority are wise." But this only : — (i) That the 
concealment of the mysteries has already led to their materialisation 
and loss at the hands of the priesthoods, and only by their publication 
can they be restored ; and (2) that the majority are sufficiently wise, at 
least in the land of the present promulgation, to refrain from murderous 
persecution either for the sake of opinion or in the interests of an 
Order. 



4 " Clothed with the Sun." 



No. XLIII. 

CONCERNING PSYCHE, OR THE SUPERIOR HUMAN 
SOUL. 1 

IT is truly said that God is the primordial mind, 
and that the kosmic universe and its manifesta- 
tions are the ideas of that mind. Mind in itself is 
passive ; it is organ, not function. Idea is active ; 
it is function. As soon, therefore, as mind begins to 
act, it brings forth ideas, and these constitute exist- 
ence. Mind is abstract ; ideas are concrete. When 
thou thinkest, thou creatcst. Ever}- thought is a 
substantial action. 

Thoth, 2 therefore, is the creator of the Kosmos. 
The science of the mysteries can be understood 
only by one who has studied the physical sciences; 
because it is the climax and crown of all these, and 
must be learned last, and not first. Unless thou 
understand the physical sciences, thou canst not 
comprehend the doctrine of Vehicles^ which is the 
basic doctrine of occult science. u If thou under- 
stand not earthly things, how shall I make thee 
understand heavenly things?" Wherefore, get know- 
ledge, get knowledge, and be greedy of knowledge, 
ever more and more. It is idle for thee to seek 
the inner chamber until thou hast passed through 
the outer. This, also, is another reason why occult 

1 Paris, December 13, [882. 

- Aiso spelt 'J/nittt, in which form it is identical in both sound and 
meaning with our word Thought, Thoth Of 1 haut > ptian 

equivalent for both Hermes and the Logos. 



Cojtcerning Psyche, 165 

science cannot be unveiled to the horde. To the un- 
learned, no truth can be demonstrated. Theosophy 1 
is the royal science. If thou wouldst reach the king's 
presence chamber, there is no way save through the 
outer rooms and galleries of the palace. 

In every living globule there are four inherent 
powers. I speak not now of the component parts 
of a cell, but of forces. The first and lowest mode 
of power is mechanical ; the second is chemical ; the 
third is electric, and the fourth is psychic. The first 
three belong to the domain of physiological science ; 
the last to that of occult science. It is this last mode 
of power which belongs to the immaculate and 
essential. It is inherent in the substantial, and is 
therefore permanent as an indefeasible quantity. It 
is in the Arche, 2 and it is wherever there is organic 
life. Now the Psyche is from the beginning latent 
and diffused in all matter ; and forasmuch as Psyche 
also is not of herself, but of spirit, therefore is spirit 
also the basic quality of all things ; — the motionless 
by motion converted into the solid ;— the invisible by 
energy made visible. So that herein are two : — that 
which is made visible, and that which makes visible ; 
and of these again is a third, that which is visible. 

And of this energy, or primordial forre, there are 
two modes (because everything is dual), the centri- 
fugal or accelerating force ; and the centripetal or 
moderating force. (Yet, as I have already said, this 

1 This term is used here in its ancient sense, the science of divine 
things, and without reference to any modern or special application of it. 
- See Appendix, " Definitions." 



1 66 " Clothed with the Sun" 

second mode of energy is feminine, and therefore 
derivative, being" reflex and complementary to its 
primary.) By means of the first force, substance 
(Psyche) becomes matter. By means of the second, 
substance resumes her first condition. But in all 
matter there is a tendency to revert to substance, 
and hence to polarise soul by means of evolution. 
The tendency to revert to substance is the cause of 
evolution. And this, because the instant the centri- 
fugal mode begins to act, that instant its derivative, the 
centripetal, begins also to exercise its influence. And 
no sooner has the primordial Arche assumed the con- 
dition of matter, than matter itself begins to diffe- 
rentiate, actuated by the inherent force of psychic 
energy, and by differentiation begets individuals 
without number. 

Then Psyche, once impersonal because essential, be- 
comes individuated and personal, and through the 
gate of matter issues forth into new life. A tiny spark 
in the globule, Psyche becomes a refulgent blaze in the 
globe. And this by continual accretion and centralisa- 
tion. As along a chain o( nerve-cells the current of 
magnetic energy flows to its central point — being con- 
veyed, as is a mechanical shock, along s ol~ units 
in contiguity — with ever culminating impetus, so is 
the psychic energy throughout nature developed. 
Hence the necessity oi centres, oi associations, 
organisms. Thus, by the system a tisat ion of congeries 
of living entities, that which in each is little becomes 
great in the whole. For the quality o\~ Psyche is ^ 
the same, and her potentiality is invariable. 



Concern ing Psyche. 167 

I have spoken of an outer personality and of an 
inner personality ; of a material consciousness as 
differing from a spiritual consciousness. So now, in 
like manner, I speak of a spiritual energy as differ- 
ing from a material energy. The energy whereby 
Psyche polarises and accretes, is not dependent on the 
undulations of ether, as are material energies. For 
Psyche is the essence of the ether itself. All mani- 
fested life is a process of burning. Psyche is the sub- 
stance of the medium by which the burning is 
conditioned. The first state of matter is ether. 
But Psyche is within and before the ether. There- 
fore is she rightly termed immaculate. And to the 
first state of matter corresponds a first mode of force, 
that is rotatory, the centrifugal and centripetal in one. 
But before and within force is will; — that is Necessity. 
Necessity is the will of God. Now this will is 
spiritual force. It is inherent in Psyche, and she is 
the medium in which it operates. Such, therefore, as 
the primordial will is in relation to the primordial 
substance, such is the individual will in relation to 
the derived soul. And when the current of spiritual 
energy (or will) is strong enough in the complex 
organism to polarise and kindle centrally, then the 
individual Psyche conceives divinity in her womb, and 
becomes God-conscious. In the rudimentary stages 
of matter this current is not strong enough, or continu- 
ous enough, thus to polarise. 

Psyche, when once she has gathered force enough 
to burn centrally, is not quenched by the disintegra- 
tion of the physical elements. These, indeed, fall 



1 68 " Clothed with the Sun" 

asunder and desquamate many times during life, 
whether it be the life of an individual or the life of a 
system ; yet the consciousness and memory remain 
the same. Thou hast not in thy physical body a 
single particle that thou hadst fifteen years since, yet 
thou art the same Ego, and thy thought is continuous. 
Thy Psyche, therefore, has grown up out of many 
elements ; and in thine Ego their interior Egos are 
perpetuated, because their psychic force is centralised 
in thine individuality. And when thy Psyche pas 
forth from the disintegrating particles of tin- physical 
body, these shall build up new material entities, and 
the reversion of matter to substance shall still con- 
tinue. And thy substantial part shall go forth to new 
affinities. 

" But," thou sayest, " if soul be immaculate, how 
comes she to be attracted by material alTinitL 

The link between her and earth is Karma. 
until she is permeated throughout her essence by 
spirit, is she able to rise above the astral in:" 
Remember that the science of th is a science 

of vehicles. Soul is the highest of the^e vehicles. 
But the spirit is the first and last term. Immaci 
though she be in her virginal essence, she is not the 
espoused bride until the bond between her and 
earth be severed. And this can only be when c\ 
molecule of her essence is pervaded by spirit, and 
indissolubly married therewith, as God with Arche 
in the Principle. 

" Put," thou sayest, " there are foul and horrible 
forms; — have these also an immaculate P 



I 



Concerning Psyche. 169 

These have a Psyche overwhelmed by her Karma, 
because of her feebleness. Either increase or decrease 
is the portion of the soul. " He that gathereth not 
with me, scattereth." Then, when the celestial is 
weak and divided, the astral and material are strong. 

" But," thou sayest, " if soul be thus a resultant of 
polarisation occurring in the organism she animates, 
how can soul pass from one body to another by 
re-incarnation ? Surely soul is formed anew in 
every body and cannot undergo transmigration ? " 

Do not confuse between substance and force. 
Substance is Psyche, the medium. Force is Spirit, 
the energy. That which burns in a flame is gas ; 
the process of burning is a mode or condition of 
the gas. That which is burnt is fuel, or matter, in 
■which the gas is generated. And when thou askest, 
" How can the Pysche, which is generated in one 
body, pass by transmigration to another?" it is as 
though thou askedst, "How can the flame generated 
in one log of wood pass to another ?" The dispensa- 
tion of physical series may be compared to a furnace 
into which are cast in succession many faggots. In 
each faggot is a certain amount of unburnt gas and 
of latent energy ; because there is no medium with- 
out inherent force. This latent or inherent force 
is capacity. (A living medium need not always be 
active, but it must retain the capacity of action. God 
need not always be creating, but God must always 
retain the capacity of creating.) As by the burning 
the gas of each faggot is consumed, the elements of 
the faggot (in each of which is stored a certain propor- 



1 70 " Clothed with tJie Sun" 

tion of this gas) disintegrate and fall into ash. Then 
another faggot catches the flame and continues it with- 
out solution, supplying in the same way the necessary- 
medium. But observe that Psyche is not "generated 
in a body," neither is flame generated in a faggot. 
But for fuel there could be no flame, and but for 
matter there could be no Psyche. That which really 
is " generated " in the fuel, is the gas by means of 
which flame becomes manifest. And that which 
really is generated in the body, is the condition by 
means of which Psyche abstract becomes Psyche 
concrete. 



No. XLIV. 

CONCERNING THE 1 - TYPE OF THE 

HEAVENLY PERSONALITY. 

[Extract from Diary, Paris, Christmas Day, 1S02 
"It is strange how I forget! This evening I have re-read 
several passages and ch ipters written by my own hand, and 
conceived in my own mind, of "The Perfect Way," and they rilled 
me with as great wonder and admiration as though I had read 
them for the first time in some stranger's work. Ought this not 
to set me a-thinking how little this outward and mundane 
memory has to do with the true and interior consciousness: 
For, indeed, in my true self I know well all these things, and 
a hundredfold more than there lie written ; yet my exterior 
self forgetteth them right readily, and, once they are written, 
scarce remembereth them more ! And this sets me wondering 
whether, perchance, we are not altogether out oi the reckoning 
\tlen we talk of memory as a iu. 



Concerning the Poet. 171 

memory, in the sense in which we use the word, signifies a 
thinking back into the past, and an act by which past experience 
in time is recalled. But how shall the true, essential self, which 
is without end or beginning, have memory in any such sort, 
since the " eternal remembrance " of the soul seeth all things 
at a glance, both past and to come ? To that which is in its 
nature Divine and of God, memory is no longer recollection, 
but knowledge. Shall we say that God remembers ? Nay, God 
knoweth. I thank thee, O my Divine Genius ; Thou art here ! 
I feel thee ; thine aura encompasseth me ; I burn under the 
glow of thy wonderful presence. Yes, it is thus indeed ! " 
Here meditation passes into illumination, and the diary thus 
continues. It will be seen that the writer had caught in 
advance the style of her illuminator.] 



THIS faculty which we call Memory is but the faint 
reflex and image in the material brain of that 
function which, in all its celestial plenitude, can belong 
only to the heavenly man. That which is of time 
and of matter must needs think by means of an organ 
and material cells, and these can only work mechani- 
cally, and by slow processes. But that which is of 
eternity and spirit needeth neither organ nor process, 
since organism is related only to time, and its re- 
sultant is process. " Yea, thou shalt see face to face ! 
Thou shalt know even as thou art known!" And just 
as widely and essentially as the heavenly memory 
differs from the earthly, so doth the heavenly per- 
sonality differ from that of the material creature. 

Thou mayest the more easily gather somewhat oi 
the character of the heavenly personality by consider- 
ing the quality of that of the highest type of mankind 
on earth, — the Poet. 



172 " Clothed with the Sim!* 

The poet hath no self apart from his larger self. 
Other men pass indifferent through life and the 
world, because the self-hood of earth and heaven 
is a thing apart from them, and toucheth them not. 

The wealth of beauty in earth and sky and sea lieth 
outside their being, and speaketh not to their heart. 

Their interests are individual and limited : their 
home is by one hearth : four walls are the boundary 
of their kingdom, — so small is it ! 

But the personality of the poet is divine: and being 
divine, it hath no limits. 

He is supreme and ubiquitous in consciousness : 
his heart beats in every element. 

The pulses of all the infinite deep of heaven 
vibrate in his own : and responding to their strength 
and their plenitude, he feels more intensely than 
other men. 

Not merely he sees and examines these rocks and 
trees: these variable waters, and these glittering 
peaks. 

Not merely he hears this plaintive wind, these 
rolling peals. 

But he is all these ; and with them — nay, in them 
— he rejoices and weeps, lie shines and aspires, he 
sighs and thunders. 

And when he sings, it is not he — the man — whose 
voice is heard : it is the voice of all the manifold 
Nature herself. 

In his verse the sunshine laughs : the mountains 
give forth their sonorous echoes; the swift lightnings 
hash. 



Concerning the Poet. 173 

The great continual cadence of universal life moves 
and becomes articulate in human language. 

joy profound ! O boundless selfhood ! O 
God-like personality ! 

All the gold of the sunset is thine ; the pillars of 
chrysolite ; and the purple vault of immensity ! 

The sea is thine with its solemn speech, its misty 
distance, and its radiant shallows ! 

The daughters of earth love thee : the water- 
nymphs tell thee their secrets ; thou knowest the 
spirit of all silent things ! 

Sunbeams are thy laughter, and the rain-drops of 
heaven thy tears ; in the wrath of the storm thine 
heart is shaken : and thy prayer goeth up with the 
wind unto God. 

Thou art multiplied in the conscience 1 of all living 
creatures ; thou art young with the youth of Nature ; 
thou art all-seeing as the starry skies : 

Like unto the Gods, — therefore art thou their 
beloved : yea, if thou wilt, they shall tell thee all 
things ; 

Because thou only understandest, among all the 
sons of men ! 

Concerning memory ; why should there any more 
be a difficulty in respect of it ? Reflect on this say- 
ing, — " Man sees as he knows." To thee the deeps 
are more visible than the surfaces of things ; but to 
men generally the surfaces only are visible. The 

1 An archaism for consciousness. In the French there is still but 
one word — conscience— {ox the two things. 



1 74 " Clothed with the SunT 

material can perceive only the material, the astral the 
astral, and the spiritual the spiritual. It all resolves 
itself, therefore, into a question of condition and of 
quality. Thy hold on matter is but slight, and thine 
organic memory is feeble and treacherous. It is hard 
for thee to perceive the surfaces of things and to re- 
member their aspect. But thy spiritual perception 
is the stronger for this weakness, and the profound is 
that which thou seest the most readily. It is hard 
for thee to understand and to retain the memory of 
material facts; but their meaning thou knowest in- 
stantly and by intuition, which is the memory of the 
soul. For the soul takes no pains to remember ; she 
knows divinely. Is it not said that the immaculate 
woman brings forth without a pang ? The sorrow 
and travail of conception belong to her whose desire 
is unto " Adam." l 



No. XLV. 

CONCERNING PSYCHE. 1 

{Continued from No. XLIIL) 

BUT it may make the subject clearer to thee if, 
leaving such material comparisons, we speak 
of those things which only may be fitly compared 
together. Thou knowest already the nature of the 

1 I.e., The outer sense and lower reason. 
- Paris, January 6, 1883. 



Concerning Psyche. 175 

planet and the divisions of its Ego into four parts or 
regions. Of these thou knowest that the soul or 
Psyche is in man ; the human superior reason. Now 
there appertains to the planet besides all these four 
regions, an atmosphere of a magnetic nature. 1 This 
atmosphere is well known to thee. It is the astral or 
sideral soul of the planet, the anima mundi or picture- 
world. Therein are stored up all the memories of the 
world ; its past life, its history, its affections and re- 
collections of physical things. The adept may inter- 
rogate this phantom world, and it shall speak for him. 
It is the cast-off vestment of the planet ; yet it is 
living and palpitating, for its very fabric is spun of 
psychic substance, and its entire parenchyma 2 is 
magnetic. And forasmuch as the planet is an entity 
ever being born and ever dying, so this astral counter- 
part of itself is ever in process of increase, — the mirror 
of the globe, a world encompassing a world. But the 
Divine Spirit, Dio-Nysos, is not in this magnetic 
circle. God the Nous is in the celestial, and the 
temple thereof is in the heart of humanity. 

Such as is the astral world to the planet, the Ruach 
is to man. And in truth the great magnetic sphere 
of the planet is itself composed and woven out of the 
magnetic Egos of its offspring, precisely as these in 
their turn are woven out of the infinitely lesser atoms 

1 Not another element, but another mode of the astral ; that in 
which it represents its past as distinguished from its present condition, 
which co-exist, — the latter continually passing into the former. 

2 Anatomically, the mass of a glandular or similar organ. Botani- 
cally, the soft cellular tissue of plants. 



1 76 " Clothed with the Sun." 

which compose the individual man. So that, by a 
figure, one may represent the whole astral atmosphere 
of the planet as a system of so many tiny spheres, 
each reflecting and transmitting special rays. But if 
in this astral sphere thou shouldst seek the true soul 
and Divine Spirit, thou shalt not find them ; for they 
are of the higher altitudes. To each world its Ruach, 
and but one. But the world's true soul migrates and 
interchanges. And this is the secret of the " creation " 
of worlds. Worlds, like men, have their karma, and 
new kosmic globes arise out of the ruins of former 
states. As the soul of the individual human unit 
transmigrates and passes on, so likewise does the 
Psyche of the planet. From world to world, in cease- 
less intercourse and impetus, the living Neshamah 
pursues her variable way. And as she passes, the 
tincture of her divinity changes. Here her spirit is 
derived through Iacchos, there through Aphrodite, 
anon through Hermes or another god. Here, again, 
she is weak, and there strong. Your planet did not 
begin this avatar in strength; an evil karma over- 
whelmed its soul, and evil lives predominated in its 
first ages. Monstrous reptiles, creeping things, and 
many fierce natures tore and devoured each other in 
the great deeps. For the world-soul was weak, and 
brought forth with pain and trouble. But Adonai 
reigns, and shall reign. 

Now the physical molecules o{ the planet are its 
many generated bodies, whether of plants, of animals, 
or of men ; and these are continually dropping into 
decay and being shed. But the living germs of all 



Concerning Psyche. 177 

these organisms die not ; they revert continually to 
their proper place, and the soul of each gathers 
strength by progression. And the ghost of each living 
thing goes into the astral sphere, its proper place ; 
and the dust of each creature to the earth; and the 
Psyche departs to fulfil her karma. For Psyche is as 
a flame within a flame, whereof the highest and most 
luminous part mounts and wanders, while the heavier 
and the less pure remains burning above the surface 
of the earth. 

And as with the man, so with the planet; for small 
and great there is one law. And one star differeth 
from another star in glory. And so throughout the 
infinite vistas and systems of heaven. From star to 
star, from sun to sun, from galaxy to galaxy, the 
kosmic souls migrate and interchange. But every 
God keeps his tincture and maintains his indefeasible 
personality. 

There is no evil. There are only weak and strong, 
and the differentiation of substance. 

Compare like with like, and preserve the affinity of 
similars. 

All things are explicable and comprehensible ; but 
the key of their explanation is order. 

Order is the first word of analysis, and the alphabet 
of synthesis. 



i yS u Clothed with the Sun' 



No. XLVI. 

CONCERNING CONSCIOUSNESS AND MEMORY IN 
RELATION TO PERSONALITY. 1 

CONSCIOUSNESS is not so much a thing as a 
condition. Now, if thou wouldst have a clear 
conception of that condition by means of ana', 
take as an illustration the image of an incandescent 
globe, — a ball of fire, fluid and igneous throughout its 
whole mass. 2 Divide this globe in thought into several 
successive zones, each containing its precedent. Thou 
wilt find that the central interior zone only contains 
the radiant point, or heart of the fiery mass, and 
that each successive zone constitutes a circumferential 
halo more or less intense, according to its nearness to 
the radiant point, but secondary and derived c 
and not in itself a source of luminous radiation. 

It is thus with the macrocosm, and thus also with 
the human kingdom. In the latter the soul is the 
interior zone, and it alone contains the radiant point. 
By this one indivisible effulgence, the successive zones 
are illuminated in unbroken continuity; but the 
source of this effulgence is not in them. I call this 
effulgence consciousness, and this radiant point the 
spiritual ego or divine spark. Now, for all things 
there is one law. God is nothing that man is not. 
Man, therefore, is one. But within this unit}- is 

1 Paris. January 15. 1 

* The idea is of a Hobe self-luminous and heated from within. 



Concerning Consciousness and Memory, 179 

plurality. God being one, is yet three ; for in one 
personality are three persons. And not only three ; 
for God is beyond number, being all that is. So 
that in this divine unity are many comprehended 
personalities. This is because spirit is in its very 
essence consciousness, and wherever spirit is there is 
consciousness. Yet all spirit is one. Wherefore 
consciousness is one. And as spirit is manifold, 
so consciousness is manifold. And spirit, like light, 
is diffusive. Were it otherwise there could be no 
universe, but only one point spreading no rays, and 
instead, thick darkness and unconsciousness through- 
out eternity. But this is absurd and against reason ; 
because it is the very nature of light to be radiant ; 
and radiance is itself light ; so that wherever light is 
there is radiance or shining ; and God is the Shining 
One, or radiant point, of the universe. God is the 
supreme consciousness, and the divine radiance is 
also consciousness. And man's interior ego is con- 
scient only because the radiant point in it is divine. 
But this consciousness emits consciousness, and trans- 
mits it, first to the anima bruta, and last to the 
physical body. But the more concentrated the 
consciousness, the brighter and more effulgent the 
central spark. It is erroneous to think of conscious- 
ness as non-diffusive, precisely as it would be to 
think of light as non-radiant. But it is true that 
consciousness hath a centre of diffusion, as light hath 
a radiant point. 

Now, if from the midst of this imagined globe of 
fire thou take the central incandescent spark, the 



1 80 " Clothed with the Sun" 

whole globe does not immediately become dark, but 
the effulgence lingers in each zone according to its 
degree of nearness to the centre of the sphere. It is 
thus also when dissolution occurs in the process of 
death. Everything is conscious according to its 
proper degree. In somnambulism either the anima 
bruta and the physical body are conscious while the 
consciousness of the soul is suspended ; or the reverse 
occurs, according to the kind of somnolence induced. 
But that part which remains conscious is capable of 
reflection, of thought, of memory, and even of in- 
telligent invention and acumen, according to its kind 
and its endowments. Consciousness is, therefore, 
diffusive and, in a certain sense, divisible. He best 
comprehends this truth who is nearest and most like 
to God ; and such a one is the poet. 

Thou knowest that in the end, when Nirvana is 
attained, the soul shall gather up all that it hath 
left within the astral of holy memories and worthy 
experience, and to this end the Ruach rises in the 
astral sphere, by the gradual decay and loss of its 
more material affinities, until these have so dis- 
integrated and perished, that its substance is thereby 
lightened and purified. But continual commerce and 
intercourse with earth add, as it were, fresh fuel to its 
earthly affinities, keeping these alive, and hindering 
its recall to its spiritual ego. Thus, therefore, the 
spiritual ego itself is detained from perfect absorption 
into the divine, and union therewith. For the Ruach 
shall not all die, if there be in it anything worthy of 
recall. The astral sphere is its purging chamber. 



Concerning Consciousness and Memory. 1 8 1 

For Saturn, who is Time, is the trier of all things ; 
he devoureth all the dross ; only that escapeth which 
in its nature is ethereal and destined to reign. And 
this death of the Ruach is gradual and natural. It 
is a process of elimination and disintegration, often 
— as men measure time — extending over many 
decades, or even centuries. And those Ruachs which 
appertain to wicked and evil persons, having strong 
wills inclined earthwards, — these persist longest and 
manifest most frequently and vividly, because they 
rise not, but, being destined to perish utterly, are not 
withdrawn from immediate contact with the earth. 
They are all dross ; there is in them no redeemable 
element. But the Ruach of the righteous complaineth 
if thou disturb his evolution. "Why callest thou me? 
disturb me not. The memories of my earth-life are 
chains about my neck ; the desire of the past 
detaineth me. Suffer me to rise towards my rest, 
and hinder me not with evocations. But let thy 
love go after me and encompass me ; so shalt thou 
rise with me through sphere after sphere." 

For the good man upon earth can love nothing 
less than the divine. Wherefore that which he loveth 
in his friend is the divine, that is, the true and radiant 
self. And if he love it as differentiated from God, 
it is only on account of its separate tincture. For 
in the perfect light there are innumerable tinctures. 
And according to its celestial affinity, one soul loveth 
this or that splendour more than the rest. And 
when the righteous friend of the good man dieth, 
the love of the living man goeth after the true soul 



i.82 " Clothed with the Sun." 

•.if the dead; and the strength and divinity of this 
love helpeth the purgation of the astral soul, the 
osychic ghost. It is to this astral soul, which ever 
remaineth near the living friend, an indication of the 
way it must also go, — a light shining upon the upward 
path that leads from the astral to the celestial and 
everlasting. For love, being divine, is towards the 
divine. " Love exalteth, love purifieth, love up- 
lifteth." 

There is but one God ; and in God are compre- 
hended all thrones, and dominions, and powers, and 
principalities, and archangels, and cherubim in the 
celestial world. And through these are all the worlds 
begotten in time and space, each with its astral 
sphere. Now, all these, both terrene and heavenly, are 
conscient entities, vet all subsist in one conscious- 
which is one God. Because all things are of spirit, and 
God is spirit, and spirit is consciousness. The material 
of the physical brain is constituted of countless cells 
and innumerable connecting fibres, and each cell hath 
its own consciousness, according to its degree. Vet 
the resultant of all these concordant functions is one 
perception and one consciousness. There is als 
consciousness o\ the nerves, and another of the b" 
and another of the tissues. There is a consciou- 
of the eye, and another of the ear, and another of the 
touch. There is a consciousness appropriate, and 
appertaining specially and distinctively, to every 
bodily organ. And all these work night and day 
within the body, each according to its kind and its 



Concerning the Substantial Ego. 183 

order. Yet the intellect of the man knoweth nothing 
thereof. Interrogate one of these living organs, and 
it will answer thee after its kind. If man, then, can 
so little dominate and direct the divers parts of his 
own physical body, why should he find it strange 
that his ethereal self be likewise similarly multiple ? 
The anima bruta is as an organ of the spiritual man ; 
and though it be part of him, its acts, its functions, 
and its consciousness are not identical with those of 
the spiritual soul. Consciousness is divisible, there- 
fore, and diffusible in man, as in God ; in the planet, 
as in the universe \ and one law is throughout all. 



No. XLVII. 

CONCERNING THE SUBSTANTIAL EGO AS THE TRUE 

SUBJECT. 1 

IT hath been said, " All life is a burning," and thou 
sayest, " Let the cells of the brain be likened to 
these burning logs, and their ash to waste tissue, and 
the flame to consciousness. Then is consciousness 
nothing more than an unstable product, which, when 
the logs are all consumed, dieth away with their ash. 
How then shall we think of Psyche, if she be this 

1 Paris, February 27, 1 883. Received during the night, and written 
down while in trance. The word Subject, spelt with a capital, is used 
herein in its metaphysical sense, to denote the thinking and perceiv- 
ing agent. 



1 84 " Clothed with the Sl n? 

flame? Is not all consciousness phenomenon merely, 
depending for its existence on an organic process ; a 
consensus of vital action in the nervous cells ? And 
the Psyche, what is she but the sum of conscious 
states, — a complexity, unstable and automatic, 
making and unmaking herself at each instant, even as 
the flame?" 

What, then, doth cognise these unstable states ? 
These successive and ephemeral objective condi- 
tions, to what Subject do they manifest themseh 
and how are they recognised ? If consciousness be 
phenomenon, to what noumenon is it related ? 
Perceivest thou not that the flame, which is pheno- 
menon, appearcth not to itself, and dependeth for its 
objectivity on the subjectivity of the observer? The 
physiologist who telleth thee that memory is a 
biological processus, and that consciousness is a state 
dependent on the duration and intensity of molecular 
nervous vibration, toucheth not the Psyche. For this 
molecular phenomenon is incapable of cognising itself; 
it is objective only. Seest thou not that unless there 
bean inner, subjective ego to perceive and to reflect 
in itself this succession of phenomenal states, the 
condition of personality would be impossible ? Or. 
thinkest thou that unless in the true and inner 
universe the ideal flame subsisted, thou couldst 
cognise the material flame ? Knowest thou not that 
in the Divine Mind subsist eternally and substanti i 
all those things of which thou beholdest the images 
and phenomena ? It is this inner substantial 
noumenon which is the Psyche. And as in nature 



C oncer 71 ing th e Su bsta v. tia I Ego, 185 

there are infinite gradations from simple to complex, 
and from coarse to fine, so is Psyche reached by 
innumerable degrees, and they who have not pene- 
trated to the inner, stop short at the secondary 
consciousness, which is objective only, and imagine 
that the subjective, which alone explains all, is 
undemonstrable. But only Psyche can apprehend 
the psychical ; only reason can reach the ultimate. 
" By what, or by whom," say the biologists, " are these 
ephemeral and unstable states which they name 
consciousness, apprehended ? Dependent for their 
production upon duration and intensity of vibration, 
they pass away as quickly as they appear." If, then, 
they appear, it is to something, otherwise their pro- 
duction and apparition, automatic in itself, could 
not be cognised. A thing or a state doth not appear 
to itself, but to the observer. For apparition and 
production are processes affecting a Subject, and this 
Subject is Psyche. 

But the vice of your biologists lieth in their pursuit 
of the unity in the simple rather than in the complex. 
By this method they reverse and invert the divine 
method of evolution, and nullify its end. They refuse 
unity to the man, in order to claim it for the molecule. 
For the ultimate element, indivisible and indestructible 
by thought, for the simplest and lowest monad only, 
they claim unity, and thereby individuality. Thus 
they divinise the lowest, and in their method evolution 
hath no motive or reasonable end. 

But, in truth, Psyche is the most complex of 
essences, and of this complexity is born responsi- 



1 86 " Clothed with the Sun" 

bility. Pure and naked simplicity of being- is the 
outermost and lowermost, touching*; negation. And 
the dignity and excellence of the human soul lieth 
not in her simplicity, but in her complexity. She is 
the summit of evolution, and all generation works in 
order to produce her. The philosophy, then, which 
deifies the lowest in place of the highest, ignores the 
true sense of its own doctrine of evolution. For the 
occult law which governs evolution brings together, in 
increasingly complex and manifold entities, innumer- 
able unities, in order that these units may, of their 
substantial essence, polarise one complex essence; — 
complex, because evolved from, and by the concur- 
rence of, many simple monads ; — essence, because in 
its nature indivisible and indestructible. The problem 
of the Ego in man is the problem of God in nature. 
By the same method which expounds the last, shall 
the first be expounded likewise. The human 
therefore, the synthesis, the divine impersonal per- 
sonified. And the higher and more excellent this 
personality, the profounder the consciousness of the 
impersonal. The divine personality is not cone 
but abstract, and the divine consciousness is not 
objective, but subjective. The phenomenal pen- 
ality and consciousness are to the noumenal as 
water reflecting the heavens, the nether completing 
and returning to the upper its own concrete reflex. 

If thou desirest really to study, to comprehend, and 
to master the heavenly science, thou must learn that 
interior and subjective method by which only heave 
tilings are apprehended. Thou must shift the ground 



Concerning the Substantial Ego. 187 

of thine observation from the exterior to the interior ; 
and this can be accomplished only by means of re- 
generation. "I tell thee that unless thou be born 
again, thou shalt not see the kingdom of God." And 
this saying meaneth that unless a man be regenerate 
he shall not be able to see the inner and essential, 
which are the only true and divine things. The 
unregenerate man works always from the exterior, 
and hath experience only of that which is without. 
But thou, if thou wouldst behold the kingdom of God, 
learn to live in the essential, and fix the polaric point 
of thy mind in the central and substantial. 



Part 2. 1 

It is necessary, before entering on the study of the 
substantial, that thou shouldst clearly apprehend what 
difference there is between the abstract and the con- 
crete. Now the study of the material is the study of 
the objective, and that of the substantial is the study 
of the subjective. That, then, which the biologists 
term the subjective is not truly so, but only the last 
or interior phases and conditions of phenomena. 
Thus, for example, the unstable states which con- 
stitute consciousness, are in their view subjective 
states. But they are objective to the true subject, 
which is Psyche, because they are perceived by this 
latter, and whatever is perceived is objective. There 
are in the microcosm two functions, — that of the 

1 Received at the same time and in the same manner as the fore- 
going, but written down on the following day. 



1 88 " Clothed with the Sun.* 9 

revealer, and that of the entity to which revelation is 
made. The unstable states of the biologist, which 
accompany certain operations of organic force, are so 
many modes whereby exterior things are revealed to 
the interior subject. They are not in themselves the 
subject to which the revelation is made. Do not 
think that thou canst attain the subjective by the 
same method of study which discovers to thee the 
objective. The last is found by observation from 
without ; the first by intuition from within. The 
human kosmos is a complexity of many principles, 
each having its own mode of operation. And it is, 
therefore, on the rank and order of the principle 
affected by any special operation that dependeth the 
nature of the effect produced. When, therefore, for 
example, the biologist speaketh of " unconscious 
cerebration," he should ask himself to whom or to 
what such operation is unconscious, knowing that in 
all vital processes there is infinite gradation. Ques- 
tions of duration affect the mind ; questions of inten- 
sity affect the Psyche. All processes which occur in 
the objective are relative to something; there is but 
one thing absolute, and that is the Subject. Uncon- 
scious cerebration is, therefore, only relatively uncon- 
scious in regard to that mode of perception which is 
conditioned in and by duration. But inasmuch as 
any such process of cerebration is intense, it is per- 
ceived by that perceptive centre which is conditioned 
by intensity, and in relation to that centre it is not 
unconscious. The interior man knoweth all process 
but many processes are not apprehended by the 



Concerning the Christian Mysteries. 189 

mental man. This truth ought in itself to demon- 
strate to thee the distinction of the human principles, 
and their separability even on this plane of life. If, 
then, the mundane ego and the heavenly ego be so 
distinct and separable, even when vitally connected, 
that a nervous process conscious to the latter shall be 
unconscious to the former, how much more shall 
separability be possible when the vital bond is 
broken ? If the polarities of all thy kosmos were 
single and identical in direction, thou wouldst be 
conscious of all processes, and nothing would be to 
thee unknown, because thy central point of perception 
would be precisely the focus of all convergent radii. 
But no unregenerate man is in such case. For most, 
the perceptive point lies in the relative and objective 
man, and by no means in the absolute and subjective. 
Thus the convergent radii pass unheeded of their 
consciousness, because, as yet, they know not their 
own spirit. They are asleep while they live, and 
incapable of absolute cognition. 



No. XLVIII. 

concerning the christian mysteries. 1 

Part i. 

THE two terms of the history of creation or evolu- 
tion are formulated by the Catholic Church in 
two precious and all-important dogmas. These are — 

1 Paris, December 12, 1882. 



1 90 " Ch thcd with the Sun" 

first, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed 
Virgin Mary ; and, secondly, the Assumption of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary. 1 By the doctrine of the first we 
are secretly enlightened concerning the generation of 
the soul, who is begotten in the womb of matter, and 
yet from the first instant of her being is pure and 
incorrupt. Sin comes through the material and intel- 
lectual element, because these belong to matter. But 
the soul, which is of the celestial, and belongs to 
heavenly conditions, is free of original sin. u Salem, 
which is from above, is free, which is the mother of us 
all. But Agar" — the intellectual and astral part — 
11 is a bond slave, both she and her son." The soul, 
born of time (Anna), is yet conceived without taint 
of corruption or decay, because her essence is divine. 
Contained in matter, and brought into the world by 
means of it, she is yet not of it, else she could not be 
mother of God. In her bosom is conceived that 
bright and holy light — the Nucleolus — which dwells in 
her from the beginning, and which, without inter- 
course with matter, germinates in her and manifests 
itself as the express image of the eternal and ineffable 
personality. She gives this image individuality. 
Through and in her it is focused and polarised into a 
perpetual and self-subsistent person, at once God and 
man. But were she not immaculate, — did any admix- 
ture of matter enter into her integral substance, — no 
such polarisation of the Divine could occur. The 
womb in which God is conceived must be immaculate ; 
the mother of Deity must be "ever- virgin." She grows 

1 The latter is not yet promulgated. See 7 .".. V. 43. n. 2. 



Concerning the Christian Mysteries. 191 

up from infancy to childhood at the knee of Anna ; 
from a child she becomes a maiden, — true type of the 
soul, unfolding, learning, increasing, and elaborating 
itself by experience. But in all this she remains in 
her essence divine and uncontaminated, at once 
daughter, spouse, and mother of God. 

As the Immaculate Conception is the foundation of 
the mysteries, so is the Assumption their crown. For 
the entire object and end of kosmic evolution is pre- 
cisely this triumph and apotheosis of the soul. In 
the mystery presented by this dogma, we behold the 
consummation of the whole scheme of creation — the 
perpetuation and glorification of the individual human 
ego. The grave — the material and astral conscious- 
ness — cannot retain the immaculate Mother of God. 
She rises into the heavens ; she assumes divinity. In 
her own proper person she is taken up into the King's 
chamber. From end to end the mystery of the soul's 
evolution — the history, that is, of humanity and of the 
kosmic drama — is contained and enacted in the 
cultus of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The acts and the 
glories of Mary are the one supreme subject of the 
holy mysteries. 

Part 2. 1 

It is necessary, in relation to the Mysteries, to dis- 
tinguish between the unmanifest and the manifest, and 

1 Home, August 19, 18S3. Mrs Kingsford thus prefaces this exposi- 
tion in her diary : — 

" How wonderfully the Church helps one in matters of Theosophy ! 
When I am doubtful about Divine Order, or about function in the human 



192 u Clot 'hed with the Sun" 

between the macrocosm and the microcosm. These 
last, however, are identical, in that the process of the 
universal and the process of the individual are one. 

Mary is the soul, and as such the matrix of the 
divine principle — God — made man by individualisa- 
tion, through descent into the " Virgin's womb." 
But the seven principles of universal spirit are con- 
cerned in this conception ; since it is through their 
operation in the soul that she becomes capable of 
polarising divinity. 

[This is the secret aspect of the Mosaic week of 
Creation, each day of which week denotes the opera- 
tion of one of the Seven creative Elohim or Divine 
Potencies concerned in the elaboration of the spiritual 
microcosm.] 

It is said that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the 
daughter, spouse, and mother of God. But, inasmuch 
as spiritual energy has two conditions, one of \ 
ivity and one of activity, — which latter is styled the 
Holy Spirit, — it is said that Mary's spouse is not the 
Father, but the Holy Ghost, these terms implying 
respectively the static and the dynamic modes of 

kingdom, I appeal instinctively to Catholic doctrine, and am at once 
set in the right path. I think I should nev< I early linden 
the Order and Function of the Soul but for the Catholic teachings 
cerning the Mother of God ; nor should I have comprehended the 
Method of Salvation by the Merits of our Divine Principle, save for 
the doctrine of the Incarnation and the Atonement." 

Between Catholic doctrine in its inner and true meaning, however, 
and that doctrine as set before the world, - 

distinction, holding firmly to the dictum that "The Church has all the 
truth, but the priests have materialised it, making themselves and their 
ollowers idolaters." 



Concei'ning the Christian Mysteries, 193 

Deity. For the Father denotes the motionless, the 
force passive and potential, in whom all things are — 
subjectively. But the Holy Ghost represents will in 
action, — creative energy, motion and generative func- 
tion. Of this union of the Divine will in action — 
the Holy Ghost — with the human soul, the product is 
Christ, the God-Man and our Lord. And through 
Christ, the Divine Spirit, by whom he is begotten, 
flows and operates. 

In the trinity of the unmanifest, the great deep, or 
ocean of infinitude — Sophia (Wisdom) — corresponds 
to Mary, and has for spouse the creative energy, of 
whom is begotten the Manifestor, Adonai, the Lord. 
This " Mother" is co-equal with the Father, being- 
primary and eternal. In manifestation the "Mother" 
is derived, being born of Time (Anna), and has for 
Father the Planet-God, — for our planet, Iacchos 
Joachim, or Jacob ; l so that the paternity of the first 
person of the Trinity is vicarious only. The Church, 
therefore, being a Church of the manifest, deals with 
Mary (substance), under this aspect alone, and hence 
does not specify her as co-equal with the first prin- 
ciple. In the unmanifest, being underived, she has no 
relation to time. 

1 Ps. xxiv. 6; cxxxii. 2, 5, &c. See Appendix, "Definitions." Every 
kosmic entity, whether a system, a planet, or a person, is constituted of 
a certain portion of Divinity, segregated and assigned to be its life and 
substance. These names designate that particular individuation of the 
universal deity of which we and our planet consist. Wherefore Mary, 
as the perfected human soul, is " daughter" of the planet-god, precisely 
as her "son" Christ, the perfected human spirit, is "son" of the 
planet-god. The soul is at once " daughter, mother, and spouse of 
God," as woman is at once daughter, mother, and spouse of man. 

N 



1 94 " Clothed with the Sun." 

No. XLIX. 

CONCERNING DYING. 1 

WHEN a man or an animal dies a violent death, 
it is not an immediate separation that takes 
place between body and soul. There are many 
principles to be considered, each, as it were, incased 
in an outer, like a nest of Chinese boxes, or the spiral 
of a cone. And the lower consciousness can be re- 
animated in the physical body by physical means. 
This is the consciousness related to nerve-stimulation 
and reflex action, as involuntary gesture and all 
animal functions. It is only by degrees that the 
soul disengages itself, and its skirts Linger long in 
the physical system, and can be detained artificially. 

All the component elements of the body polarise to 
form a unity, which is as a sun to the system But 
this polarisation is fourfold, and the central and in- 
most point of radiance is not objective but subjective 
That which reflects is molecular ; that which shines is 
non-molecular. Force, or spirit, is non-molecular. 
That, therefore, is alone one and indivisible, and it is 
subjective. When Psyche is one with the spirit, she 
too becomes subjective. It has been said, "All things 
are by infinite gradation, and Psyche is reached by 
innumerable degrees ; so that they who have not 

1 Same place and date as the fv*e|»*>ing. 



C oncer 71 ing Dj ing, 195 

. penetrated to the inner, stop short at the secondary 
consciousness, and imagine that to be the subjective." 
Psyche, so long as existence l lasts, is a mirror to the 
spirit ; she reflects, and is therefore molecular. But 
she is gradually in process of at-one-ment ; — she 
and the spirit mutually attract and permeate each 
other. She will, then, finally become non-molecular 
and entirely subjective. Therefore the higher the 
entity undergoing death, the easier the detachment of 
Psyche from the lower consciousnesses which enshrine 
her. For the nearer she is to being herself a radiant 
point, the nearer she is to unity and spiritual subjec- 
tivity. The saint does not fear death because his 
consciousness is gathered up into Psyche, and she into 
her spouse. " The grave — that is the physical and 
astral consciousness — cannot retain the holy Virgin." 
The whole object of incarnation is to build up a 
spiritual counterpart, subjective and substantial. 
Now, when once the radii of the physical and astral 
molecules have polarised a radiant point interior and 
superior to themselves, no injury or mutilation of the 
physical ego will affect the subjective ego. As a 
matter of fact, physical bodies are constantly chang- 
ing and interchanging their particles ; portions of 
other bodies are engrafted continually within them ; 
but there is no change in the unity or continuity of 
the higher consciousness. This is because the true 
unity is not objective, but subjective. The true " Son 
of man " is " in heaven," and it is his body and anima 
brnta only which are on earth. Most of the mistakes 
1 The state of manifested as distinguished from unmanifested being. 



196 " Clothed with the Sun" 

of the materialists arise from understanding localities 
and things when they should understand conditions 
and principles. Of course a subjective entity cannot 
be localised in space or duration. Potentially the 
soul is always eternal, although brought into relation 
with the objective through time. It is therefore 
a mistake to suppose that the soul is in the body 
in the same sense as the watery humours of the 
body. The soul is in the body only in the sense 
in which Arche is in the universe ; that is, she is 
interior to it in the fourth dimension, of which, objec- 
tively, no idea can be formed. If there were no other 
consciousness inherent in man than the lower consci- 
ousness of the cells, there could be no self-conscious- 
ness, or unity of thought. The cerebral sense would 
not be reflected in knowledge, and man would not 
be cognisant of his apprehensions and perceptions. 
Continuity of memory and will must belong to one, 
and must be positive and absolute, that is, when they 
relate to higher selfhood. 

As regards the lower consciousness, it is easy to 
understand that in the case of violent death, death is 
not instantaneous. The stroke of the sword which 
divides the physical head from the physical trunk 
may indeed be instantaneous, but this physical 
separation does not constitute death, and this process 
is not really complete until the phantom is wholly 
disengaged. So long as it is present, of course, any 
physical aid given to the nerve-cells permits the 
manifestation of its forces. But when it has wholly 
abandoned the bodv such aid would be furnished in 






Concern ing t, : e One Life. 197 

vain. The fluidic body is so tenuous and elastic that 
no mere separation of the physical frame would suffice 
to destroy its integrity. 



No. L. 

CONCERNING THE ONE LIFE; 1 

being a recapitulation, 

(10 

THE spirit absorbed in man or in the planet does 
not exhaust Deity. 

Nor does the soul evolved upward through matter 
exhaust substance. 

There remain, then, ever in the fourth dimension 
■ — the principium — above the manifest, unmanifest 
God and soul. 

The perfection of man and of the planet is attained 
when the soul of the one and of the other is through- 
out illuminate by spirit. 

But spirit is never the same thing as soul. It is 
always celestial energy, and soul is always substance. 

That which creates is Spirit (God). 

The immanent consciousnesses (spirits) of all the 
cells of a man's entity, cause by their polarisation 
a central unity of consciousness, which is more than 

1 Written at home, the first five sections on December 9, 1883, and 
the rest on January 21, 1884, and regarded by the writer as an exercise 
ot meditation, based on previous illuminations, rather than as a fre h 
illumination. It is unfinished. 



[98 " Clothe i with the Sun. 79 

the sum total of all their consciousnesses, because it 
is on a higher round or plane. 

For in spiritual science everything depends upon 
levels ; and the man's evolution works round spirally, 
as does the planetary evolution. 

In this relation consider the worlds of form and 
formless worlds of Hindu theosophy. 

Similarly the soul of the planet is more than the 
associated essences of the souls upon it : because this 
soul also is on a higher plane than they. 

Similarly, too, the consciousness of the solar 
system is more than that of the associated world- 
consciousnesses. 

And the consciousness of the manifest universe is 
greater than that of its corporate systems. 

But that of the unmanifest is higher and greater 
still : as, except in substance, God the Father is 
greater than God the Son. 

(2.) 

The elemental kingdoms represent spirit on its 
downward path into matter. 

There are three of these before the mineral is 
reached. 

These are the formless worlds before the worlds of 
form. 

They are in the planet, and also in man. 

All the planets inhabited by manifest forms are 
themselves manifest. 

After the form-worlds come other formless worlds, 
caused by the upward arc of ascending spirit : but 
these also are in the planet. 



Concerning the One Life. 199 

They are also in the man : and are the states of 
pure thought. 

The thinker, therefore, who is son of Hermes, is 
as far beyond the medium who is controlled and who 
is not self-conscious, as the formless worlds of the 
ascending arc are beyond the formless worlds of the 
elemental, or descending, arc. 

In the planet and in the man they only seem con- 
tiguous because each round is spiral. 

But each round takes the One Life higher in the 
spiral. 

Neither the planet-soul nor the man-soul goes over 
exactly the same ground again. 

But perverse and disobedient will may reverse the 
direction of the spiral. 

Individuals in whom the will so acts, are finally 
abandoned by the planet to the outer sphere. 

(3.) 

The One Life is the point of consciousness. 

The will is the impulse which moves it. 

In the celestial the One Life is the Elohim ; and 
the will is the Father. 

The One Life is manifest by effulgence (the Son). 

So, then, the will begets in substance the effulgence, 
which is the manifestation of the One Life. 

In man and the planet the effulgence is dim and 
diffuse until it moves into the soul. Then only Christ 
is born. 

The One Life is invisible until Christ manhests it. 



200 " ClolJicd with the Sun." 

Christ in man has for counterpart Adonai in the 
heavens. 

So, then, the One Life is in the Father-Mother 
latently, until manifest by the Son (effulgence). 

And the procession of the Holy Spirit is from the 
Father-Mother through the Son. 

Herein is the difference reconciled between the 
Greek and Latin Churches. 

The point of consciousness shineth more and more 
unto the perfect day of brightness (" Nativity of 
Christ " within man). 

(40 

The object of creation is the production of 
"Ancients." x 

They are the first-fruits of the souls of the planets ; 
or "First Resurrection.'' (First in dignity, not in 
time.) 

The)' are not themselves creators; but are regene- 
rators of that which is created ; 

Being vehicles for the I I y Spirit, who is the 
regenerator, through Christ. 

Because will can create only when it is in the 
abstract ; the derived does not create. 

The Father-Mother creates through Adonai by 
means of the Holy Spirit 

The will of the perfect man renovates through the 
effulgence of his One Life. 

His Karma is poured out over the world to save 
mankind. 

1 A.V., " Apoc. iv. 



Concerning the One Life. 201 

He is the Saviour through his precious life. 
There are twenty-four Ancients, because there are 
twelve Avatars of the Lord, and every one is dual. 

(5-) 

Will, when it is derived through existence, begets 
Karma. 

God has no Karma. God does not ex-ist : God [S. 

Karma is the channel of initiation. God is not 
initiated. 

The perfect man saves himself and saves others by 
his righteousness. 

The two terms of existence are creation and re- 
demption. 

The first is God's work; the second is the work of 
Christ, — God in man. 

The reason why the Ancient cannot create is because 
he is not infinite. 

He is immortal, not eternal ; he is derived, not self- 
subsistent. 

His is the point of grace, not the point of projection. 

The thrones of the Ancients are round about the 
Throne of God and below it 

The lower self is the cause of the difference be- 
tween man and nature. 

This lower self is the unreal self, the magnetic 
states. 

These magnetic states are the serpent, in whose 
folds all nature is involved (to man). 



202 " Clothed with the S?in n 

It is the serpent that tempts Eve, the souL 

How does this magnetic self arise ? 

It is a reflect, the pole of which is antithetic to the 
pole of the true self. 

The perfect balance is to be in the centre or 
equator, between the two. 

Nature has no lower self; consequently she is not 
self-conscious (does not know that she is " naked "). 

The centre of the true self is in eternity; the poles 
are in time. 

The soul's proper seat is in the centre, — eternity. 

When she is there, the man is in eternal life. 

This centre is the tree of life. 

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the 
condition of the cognisance of the two poll - 

Eating the fruit of this tree is the act by which the 
soul beholds these two poles. 

While she remained in her first state, she was as 
nature is, seeing only one pole, the good, and not 
knowing herself. 

(7.) 

There are two modes of God, — the manifest and 
the un manifest. 

God manifest rises gradually through nature to 
meet God unmanifest 

Every level in nature rises out of itself to merge in 
every other level. 

When the mind-plane is reached, God em 
thence as the soul, and looks upon himself 



Concerning the One Life, 20 



That into which the soul looks back is the past of 
her journey, — time and nature. 

That into which she looks forward is God, — spirit 
and eternity. 

The point she has reached is eternal life, — the tree 
in the midst of paradise. 

The false self is the mirage in time. 

As the planes evolved, their laws were the laws of 
God. 

But backwards they are the laws of the Devil. 

" A prayer said backwards is an evocation of the 
Evil One." 

(8.) 

The God manifest is the true self. 

The God unmanifest is the Divine overshadowing, 
the true spouse of the soul. 

To know one's self is no sin. 

God planted the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil. 

The sin is in the retrogression towards the astral* 

It is the giving of the apple to Adam. 

Adam is commanded ; Adam is rebuked. 

From the moment of the fall, a new projection 
takes place, similar to that of God's first projection 
into time. 

The wheel turns again, and all is done over again 
in the microcosm. 

For the retrogression towards the intellectual 
(Adam) is a displacement of the centre. 



20| u Clothed with the Sun! 1 

It is a transference of the tree of life from the 
place of Eve (the soul) to the place of Adam. 

The centre can be nowhere save in the meeting- 
place of the two lines which intersect at right angles 
the two triangles of the " Seal of Solomon."' 

There can be but one point of centre, therefore the 
two trees represent two lines crossed. 

When the One Life has reached the seventh 
kingdom, then is the Sabbath. 

That is the point of return from Nature — God in 
Action — to God in God — Rest. 

Seven for the outgoing, seven for the incoming. 1 

(9.) 

Thought in nature is the law of God. 

Thought in man is the law o\ (iod ; because man 
i> the offspring of nature, and there is but one law. 

All the planes in nature express this thought in 
unison. 

Law in one plane does not conflict with law in 
another plane. Therefore God is invariable in 
nature. 

But in man there appears to be conflict of two 
diverse wills. How is this, and whence comes the 
will which conflicts with the law of God in man ? 

Man, like the world, is constituted of many planes. 

Each plane has its consciousness, and the medium 

1 The difference between this reckoning and that in The 

. Part II.. No. 111., v. 60, 61, is only apparent, the point wh ch 
lie two series have in common being here reckoned twice over, making 

' In- to'.al in both cases thirteen. 



Concerning the One Life. 205 

of one plane is more responsive and powerful in ex- 
pressing the will of God than that of another plane. 

The same is true of nature's plane. It is a question 
of subtlety and rarefaction of media. 

The cause of evolution is the constant convergence 
of radii. 

That is, — the consciousness of the mineral plane 
has a tendency to express itself in a higher plane, i.e., 
as vegetable consciousness ; and the vegetable as 
animal ; and the animal as human; and the human 
as divine. 

But when the human is reached, the whole process 
begins over again, in petto. 

And in man unregenerate, the tendency is not from 
behind forwards, in upward order, but in downwards, 
or retrogressive series. 

For in man all the planes are consubstantiate, and 
all their modes of law obtain. Some media are 
weaker or denser than others, and these are the 
lowermost and outermost, — " touching negation." 

(10.) 

As the earth in its whirling, or individuation, 
throws off its Karma, so it is with man. 

It is through Karma that initiation occurs. 

Karma is two faced, good and evil. But only the 
good face reflects on us the divine light. 

Diana is the moon ; so also is Hecate. 

The " moon " is good or evil, according to the 
condition of the postulant. 



PART THE SECOND. 



THE BOOK OF THE MYSTERIES OF GOD, 

ANCIENTLY CALLED 

THE GREATER MYSTERIES, 

AS CONTAINING KNOWLEDGES WHICH FOR THEIR 

INTERIORNESS WERE RESERVED FOR 

INITIATES OF HIGH GRADE. 



"And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having 
an eternal gospel to proclaim unto them that dwell on the 
earth, ar.d unto every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and 
people ; and he saith with a great voice, Fear God, and 
give him glory ; for the hour of his judgment is come : and 
worship him that made the heaven and the earth, and sea 
and fountains of waters," 

Apoc. xiv. 6, 7 (R.V.). 



"I AM," 



210 " Clothed wilh the Sun. 9 

No. I. 

THE CREDO; 1 

being a summary of the spiritual history of the Sons 
of God, and the mysteries of the kingdoms of the 
Seven Spheres. 

I BELIEVE in one God ; the Father and Mother 
Almighty ; of whose substance are the genera- 
tions of Heaven and of earth : And in Christ Jesus 
the Son of God, our Lord; who is conceived of the 
Holy Ghost ; born of the Virgin Mary ; suffered] 
under the world-rulers ; is crucified, dead, and buried; 
who descended! into hell ; who riseth again from the 
dead ; who ascendeth into Heaven, and sitteth at 
the right hand of God ; by whose law the quick and 
the dead are judged. I believe in the Seven Spirits 
of God; the Kingdom of Heaven; the communion 
ol the elect ; the passing-through of souls ; the 
redemption of the bod)-; the life everlasting; and the 
Amen.- A 

Me that believeth and is initiated shall be saved ; 
and he that believeth not shall consume away. 8 

This and the next were received in Paris, July 18791 
For the Notes indicated by small capitals, see Ap) endix. 






The " Lord's Prayer J* 2 1 1 



No. II. 

THE "LORD'S PRAYER "; 
being a prayer of the Elect for interior perfectionment, 

OUR Father-Mother who art in the upper and the 
within : 

Hallowed be Thy name: 

Thy kingdom come : 

Thy will be done, in the body as in the spirit : 

Give us every day the communion of the mystical 
bread : 

And perfect us in the power of Thy Sons, according 
as we give ourselves to perfect others : 

And in the hour of temptation deliver us from the 
hand of Satan. 

For Thine are the kingdom, the power, and the 
glory, 

In the life eternal, and in the Amen. A 



212 " Clothed with the Sun? 

No. III. 

CONCERNING HOLY WRIT. 

ALL Scriptures which are the true Word of God, 
have a dual interpretation, the intellectual and 
the intuitional, the apparent and the hidden. 

2. For nothing' can come forth from God save that 
which is fruitful. 

3. As is the nature of God, so is the Word of God's 
mouth. 

4. The letter alone is barren ; the spirit and the 
letter give life. 

5. But that Scripture is the more excellent which is 
exceeding fruitful and brings forth abundant signifi- 
cation. 

6. For God is able to say many things in one, as 
the perfect ovary contains man)- seeds in its chalice. 

7. Therefore there are in the Scriptures of God's 
Word certain writing", which, as richly yielding trees, 
bear more abundantly than others in the self-same 
holy garden. 

8. And one of the most excellent is the history of 
the generation of the heavens and the earth. 

9. For therein is contained in order a genealogy, 
which has four heads, as a stream divided into four 
branches, a word, exceeding rich. 

10. And the first of these generations is that of the 
Gods. 



Concerning Sin and Death. 213 

11. The second is that of the kingdom of heaven. 

12. The third is that of the visible world. 

13. And the fourth is that of the Church of Christ. 



No. IV. 

CONCERNING SIN AND DEATH. 1 

AS is the outer so is the inner : He that worketh 
is One. 

2. As the small is, so is the great : there is one law. 

3. Nothing is small and nothing is great in the 
Divine Economy. 

4. If thou wouldst understand the method of the 
world's corruption, and the condition to which sin 
hath reduced the work of God, 

5. Meditate upon the aspect of a corpse ; and 
consider the method of the putrefaction of its tissues 
and humours. 

6. For the secret of death is the same, whether of 
the outer or of the inner. 

7. The body dieth when the central will of its 
system no longer bindeth in obedience the elements 
of its substance. 

8. Every cell is a living entity, whether of vege- 
table or of animal potency. 

9. In the healthy body every cell is polarised in 

1 Paris, October 3, 1878. Received in sleep. 



214 " Clothed with the Sun" 

subjection to the central will, the Adonai of the 
physical system. 

10. Health, therefore, is order, obedience, and 
govern merit. 

11. But wherever disease is, there is disunion, 
rebellion, and insubordination. 

12. And the deeper the seat of the confusion, the 
more dangerous the malady, and the harder to 
quell it. 

13. That which is superficial may be more easily 
healed ; or, if need be, the disorderly elements may 
be rooted out, and the body shall be whole and at 
unity again. 

14. But if the disobedient molecules corrupt each 
other continually, and the perversity spread, and 
the rebellious tracts multiply their elements ; the 
whole body shall fall into dissolution, which is 
death. 

15. For the central will that should dominate all 
the kingdom of the body, is no longer obeyed ; and 
every element is become its own ruler, and hath a 
divergent will of its own. 

16. So that the poles of the cells incline in divers 
directions ; and the binding power which is the life of 
the bod)-, is dissolved and destroyed. 

17. And when dissolution is complete, then follow 
corruption and putrefaction. 

18. Now, that which is true of the physical, is true 
likewise of its prototype. 

19. The whole world is full of revolt ; and every 
element hath a will divergent from God. 



Concerning the " Great Work? 2 1 5 

20. Whereas there ought to be but one will, 
attracting and ruling the whole man. 

21. But there is no longer brotherhood among you; 
nor order, nor mutual sustenance. 

22. Every cell is its own arbiter; and every member 
is become a sect. 

23. Ye are not bound one to another : ye have 
confounded your offices, and abandoned your 
functions. 

24. Ye have reversed the direction of your magnetic 
currents ; ye are fallen into confusion, and have given 
place to the spirit of misrule. 

25. Your wills are many and diverse ; and every 
one of you is an anarchy. 

26. A house that is divided against itself, falleth. 

27. O wretched man; who shall deliver you from 
this body of death ? c 



No. V. 

CONCERNING THE "GREAT WORK," THE REDEMPTION, 
AND THE SHARE OF CHRIST JESUS THEREIN. 1 

" T~? OR this cause is Christ manifest, that he may 
-L destroy the works of the devil." 
2. In this text of the holy writings is contained 

1 Commenced in Paris, September 30, 1878, to v. 20. Completed 
in London, July, 13, 1881. Received chiefly in sleep. 



2 1 6 u Clothed with the Sun." 

the explanation of the mission of the Christ, and the 
nature of the Great Work. 

3. Now the devil, or old serpent, the enemy of 
God, is that which gives pre-eminence to matter. 

4. He is disorder, confusion, distortion, falsification, 
error. He is not personal, he is not positive, he is 
not formulated. Whatever God is, that the devil is 
not. 

5. God is light, truth, order, harmony, reason: and 
God's works are illumination, knowledge, understand- 
ing, love, and sanity. 

6. Therefore the devil is darkness, falsehood, dis- 
order, discord, ignorance ; and his works are con- 
fusion, folly, division, hatred and delirium. 

7. The devil is therefore the negation of God's 
Positive. God is I AM : the devil is NOT. He has 
no individuality and no existence ; for he represents 
the not-being. Wherever God's kingdom is not, the 
devil reigns. 

8. Now the Great Work is the redemption of 
spirit from matter; that is, the establishment of the 
kingdom of God. 

9. Jesus being asked when the kingdom of God 
should come, answered, " When Two shall be as 
One, and that which is Without as that which is 
Within." » 

io. In saying this, he expressed the nature of the 
Great Work. The Two are spirit and matter : the 
within is the real invisible ; the without is the illusory 
visible, 

1 II. Ep. Clement, v. L 



Concerning the " Great Work? 2 1 7 

11. The kingdom of God shall come when spirit 
and matter shall be one substance, and the pheno- 
menal shall be absorbed into the real. 

12. His design was therefore to destroy the 
dominion of matter, and to dissipate the devil and 
his works. 

13. And this he intended to accomplish by pro- 
claiming the knowledge of the Universal Dissolvent, 
and giving to men the keys of the kingdom of 
God. 

14. Now, the kingdom of God is within us ; that 
is, it is interior, invisible, mystic, spiritual. 

15. There is a power by means of which the outer 
may be absorbed into the inner. 

16. There is a power by means of which matter 
may be ingested into its original substance. 

17. He who possesses this power is Christ, and he 
has the devil under foot. 

18. For he reduces chaos to order, and indraws the 
external to the centre. 

19. He has learnt that matter is illusion, and that 
spirit alone is real. 

20. He has found his own central point : and 
all power is given unto him in heaven and on 
earth. 

21. Now, the central point is the number thirteen : 
it is the riTrmber of the marriage of the Son of God. 

22. And all the members of the microcosm are 
bidden to the banquet of the marriage. 

23. But if there chance to be even one among them 
which has not on a wedding garment, 



2 1 3 " Clothed with the Sun? 

24. Such a one is a traitor, and the microcosm 
is found divided against itself. 

25. And that it may be wholly regenerate, it is 
necessary that Judas be cast out. 

26. Now the members of the microcosm are twelve: 
of the senses three, of the mind three, of the heart 
three, and of the conscience three. 

27. For of the body there are four elements ; and 
the sign of the four is sense, in the which are three 
gates ; 

28. The gate of the eye, the gate of the ear, and 
the gate of the touch. 

29. Renounce vanity, and be poor: renounce praise, 
arid be humble: renounce luxury, and be chaste. 

30. Offer unto God a pure oblation : let the fire of 
the altar search thee, and prove thy fortitude. 

31. Cleanse thy sight, thine hands, and thy feet: 
carry the censer of thy worship into the courts of the 
Lord ; and let thy vows be unto the Most High. 

32. And for the magnetic man l there are four 
elements : and the covering of the four is mind, in 
the which are three gates ; 

^^. The gate of desire, the gate of labour, and 
the gate of illumination. 

34. Renounce the world, and aspire heaven-ward : 
labour not for the meat which perishes, but ask of 
God thy daily bread : beware of wandering doctrines, 
and let the Word of the Lord be thy light. 

1 I.e., the magnetic or astral part of Man, which is accounted a 
person or system in itself. 



Concerning the " Great Work. 11 219 

35. Also of the soul there are four elements: and 
the seat of the four is the heart, whereof likewise 
there are three gates ; 

36. The gate of obedience, the gate of prayer, and 
the gate of discernment. 

37. Renounce thine own will, and let the law of 
God only be within thee : renounce doubt : pray 
always and faint not : be pure of heart also, and 
thou shalt see God. 

38. And within the soul is the Spirit : and the 
Spirit is One, yet has it likewise three elements. 

39. And these are the gates of the oracle of God, 
which is the ark of the covenant ; 

40. The rod, the host, 1 and the law : 

41. The force which solves, and transmutes, and 
divines : the bread of heaven which is the substance 
of all things and the food of angels ; the table of 
the law, which is the will of God, written with the 
finger of the Lord. 

42. If these three be within thy spirit, then shall 
the Spirit of God be within thee. 

43. And the glory shall be upon the propitiatory, 
in the holy place of thy prayer. 

44. These are the twelve gates of regeneration : 
through which if a man enter he shall have right to 
the tree of life. 

45. For the number of that tree is thirteen. 

46. It may happen to a man to have three, to 
another five, to another seven, to another ten. 

1 The Sacramental bread called by the Hebrews "Showbread." 



220 " Clothed with the Sun" 

47. But until a man have twelve, he is not master 
over the last enemy. 

48. Therefore was Jesus betrayed to death by 
Judas : because he was not yet perfected. 

49. But he was perfected through suffering: yea, 
by the passion, the cross, and the burial. 

50. For he could not wholly die : neither could his 
body see corruption. 

51. So he revived : for the elements of death were 
not in his flesh ; and his molecules retained the 
polarity of life eternal. 

52. He therefore was raised and became perfect: 
having the power of the dissolvent and of trans- 
mutation. 

53. And God glorified the Son of Man : yea, he 
ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of 
the Majest) on high. 

54. Thence also the Christ shall come again : in 
power like unto the power of his ascension 

55. For as yet the devil is undissipated : the Virgin 
indeed has crushed his head; but still he lies in wait 
for her heel. 

56. Therefore the Great Work is yet to be ac- 
complished. 

57. When the leaven shall have leavened the 
whole lump ; when the seed shall have become a 
tree; when the net shall have gathered all things 
into it. 

58. For in the same power and glory he had at his 
ascension, shall Christ Jesus be manifested from 
heaven before angels and men. 



it 



Before the Beginning" 221 



59. For when the cycle of the creation is com- 
peted, whether of the macrocosm, or of the microcosm, 
the Great Work is accomplished. 

60. Six for the manifestation, and six for the 
interpretation : six for the outgoing, and six for 
the ingathering : six for the man, and six for the 
woman. 

61. Then shall be the Sabbath of the Lord God. 1 



NO. VI. 

CONCERNING ORIGINAL BEING ; OR, " BEFORE THE 
BEGINNING." 

BEFORE the beginning of things, before the 
generation of the heavens, the great and in- 
visible God alone subsisted. 

2. Even the God whose name is unspeakable, upon 
Whom no eye hath ever looked, whose nature no mind 
create can fathom. 

3. In the bosom of the Eternal were all the Gods 
comprehended, as the seven spirits of the prism, con- 
tained in the Invisible Light. 

4. The Elohim filled and comprised the universe, 
and the universe was at rest. 

5. There was no motion, nor darkness, nor space, 
nor matter. 

1 See note to Part I. t No. L. (8) ; also Appendix, Second Coming. 



222 " Clothed with the Stm. * 

6. There was no other than God. 

7. For there was One only, the Uncreate and Self- 
subsistent. 

8. But forasmuch as motion was conceived in the 
bosom of the Elohim, the Invisible Light moved on 
itself; 

9. And gathering itself inward toward its axis, left 
beyond and without it another self. 

10. So that where God was not, there was darkness 
and the abyss. 

11. Yet had the darkness of itself no existence, for 
before the beginning God was all in all. 

12. And that which had been God became dark- 
ness by the withdrawal of God. 

13. So that the darkness is no entity, for it is 
the negation of being. 

14. It is no presence, for where a presence is, there 
is God. 

15. Neither can it produce, neither can it be mani- 
fested, neither can it be annihilated. 

16. Vet, forasmuch as the darkness doth not com- 
prehend God, it is as another self. 

17. Not having power in itself, for all power is 
God's. 

18. Neither having personality, for all personality 
is of Gcjd 

19. But unless there were again to be cessation of 
motion, there can be no extinction of negation. 

20. It may be bounded, but never annihilated. 

21. Whatever is, is of God; but God only is 
absolute and perfect being. 



w In the Beginning! 9 223 

22. All things visible and invisible were potential 
in God before the beginning, and of God's fulness we 
have all received. 

23. Inasmuch as anything is absolute, strong, per- 
fect, true, insomuch it resembles God and is God. 

24. Inasmuch as anything is out of reason, weak, 
divided, false, insomuch it approaches negation, and 
is of negation. 

25. Now the Absolute, which is God, is Spirit. 



No. VII. 

ALPHA, OR "IN THE BEGINNING." 

IN the beginning, the potentialities of all things 
were in Elohim. 

2. And Elohim was twain, the Spirit and the 
Water, — that is, the heavenly deep. 

3. Now the spirit of Elohim is original life, and the 
heavenly waters are space and dimension. 

4. He is the line, and She is the circle. 

5. And without them is void and darkness 

6. Now the Divine twain were from the beginning 
contained in the bosom of the One who was before 
the beginning : 

7. Even God the nameless, invisible, unfathomable, 
unspeakable, motionless : 

8. From whom proceeded the heavens — that is, the 
duality, spirit, and deep — and the earth — that is, 
spiritually, the beyond. 



224 " Clothed with the Sun. 

9. Now the beyond was without form and void, 
and darkness covered the face of it. 

10. But the heavenly waters were covered by the 
Spirit of God. 



No. VIII. 

BETA, OR ADONAI, THE MANIFESTOS 

THEN from the midst of the Divine Duality, the 
Only Begotten of God came forth : 

2. Adonai, the Word, the Voice invisible. 

3. He was in the beginning, and by Him were all 
things discovered. 

4. Without Him was not anything made which is 
visible. 

5. For He is the Manifestos and in Him was the 
life of the world. 

6. God the nameless hath not revealed God, but 
Adonai hath revealed God from the beginning. 

7. He is the presentation of Elohim, and by Him 
the Gods are made manifest. 

8. He is the third aspect of the Divine Triad : 

9. Co-equal with the Spirit and the heavenly deep. 

10. For except by three in one, the Spirits of the 
Invisible Light could not have been made manifest. 

11. But now is the prism perfect, and the generation 
of the Gods discovered in their order. 

12. Adonai dissolves and resumes ; in His two hands 
are the dual powers of all things. 



The Mystery oj Redemption. 225 

13. He is of His Father the Spirit, and of His 
Mother the great deep. 

14. Having the potency of both in Himself, and the 
power of things material. 

15. Yet being Himself invisible, for He is the cause, 
and not the effect. 

16. He is the Manifestor, and not that which is 
manifest. 

17. That which is manifest is the Divine Substance. 



NO. IX. 
GAMMA, OR THE MYSTERY OF REDEMPTION. 

ALL things are formed of the Divine Substance, 
which is the Divine idea. 

2. Therefore all things are one, as God is one. 

3. And every monad of the Divine Substance hath 
in ilself the potency of twain, as God is twain in one. 

4. And every monad which is manifest, is manifest 
by the evolution of its Trinity. 

5. For thus only can it bear record of itself, and 
become cognisable as an entity. 

6. There are three which bear record in the Holy of 
Holies, — the Spirit, the Water, and the Word, — an.l 
these three are one. 

7. And there are three which bear record in the 
outer world, — the life, the soul, and the body, — and 
these three agree in one. 

8. As is God, so is all which goes forth from God. 

P 



226 " Clothed with the Sim" 

9. From the imponderable particles of physical 
light, to the molecules of the lead of the outermost 
circle, D 

10. All things in heaven and in earth are of God, 
both the invisible and the visible. 

11. Such as is the invisible, is the visible also, for 
there is no boundary line betwixt spirit and matter. 

12. Matter is spirit made exteriorly cognisable by 
the force of the Divine Word. 

13. And when God shall resume all things by love, 
the material shall be resolved into the spiritual, and 
there shall be a new heaven and a new earth. 

14. Not that matter shall be destroyed, for it came 
forth from God, and is of God indestructible and 
eternal. 

15. Hut it shall be indrawn and resolved into its 
true self. 

16. It shall put off corruption, and remain incorrup- 
tible. 

17. It shall put off mortality, and remain immortal. 

18. So that nothing be lost of the Divine sub- 
stance. 

19. It was material entity: it shall be spiritual 
entity. 

20. For there is nothing which can go out from the 
presence of God. 

21. This is the doctrine of the resurrection of the 
dead : that is, the transfiguration of the body. ° 

22. For the bod}', which is matter, is but the mani- 
festation of spirit : and the Word of God shall 
transmute it into its inner being 



The Mystery of Generation. 227 

23. The will of God is the alchemic crucible : and 
the dross which is cast therein is matter. 

24. And the dross shall become pure gold, seven 
times refined ; even perfect spirit. 

25. It shall leave behind it nothing : but shall be 
transformed into the Divine image. 

26. For it is not a new substance : but its alchemic 
polarity is changed, and it is converted. 

27. But except it were gold in its true nature, it 
could not be resumed into the aspect of gold. 

28. And except matter were spirit, it could not 
revert to spirit. 

29. To make gold, the alchemist must have gold. 

30. But he knows that to be gold which others 
take to be dross. 

31. Cast thyself into the will of God, and thou 
shalt become as God. 

32. For thou art God, if thy will be the Divine 
will. 

33. This is the great secret: it is the mystery of 
redemption. 



No. X. 

DELTA, OR THE MYSTERY OF GENERATION. 

BY the word of Elohim were the seven Elohim 
manifest : 
2. Even the seven Spirits of God, in the order of 
their precedence : 



228 " Clothed with the Sun." 

3. The Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Understand- 
ing, the Spirit of Counsel, the Spirit of Power, the 
Spirit of Knowledge, the Spirit of Righteousness, and 
the Spirit of Divine Awfulness. 

4. All these are coequal and coeternal. 

5. Each has the nature of the whole in itself: and 
each is a perfect entity. 

6. And the brightness of their manifestation shineth 
forth from the midst of ca:h, as wheel within wheel, 
encircling the White Throne of the Invisible Trinity 
in Unity. 

7. These are the Divine fires which burn before the 
presence of God : which proceed from the Spirit, and 
are one with the Spirit. 

8. He is divided, yet not diminished : He is All, 
and He is One. 

9. For the Spirit of God is a flame of fire which 
the Word of God divideth into many: yet the original 
flame is not decreased, nor the power thereof nor the 
brightness thereof lessened. 

10. Thou mayest light many lamps from the flame 
of one; yet thou dost in nothing diminish that first 
flame. 

11. Now the Spirit of God is expressed by the 
Word of God. which is Adonai 

12. For without the Word the Will could have had 
no utterance. 

13. Thus the Divine Will divided the Spirit 
of God, and the seven fires went forth from 
the bosom of God, and became seven spiritual 
entities. 



The Mystery of Generation. 229 

14. They went forth into the Divine Substance, 
which is the substance of all that is. 

15. Now the Divine Substance is the great deep : 
that is the first protoplasma. 

16. She encircles and embraces all things, and of 
Her are dimension, and form, and appearance. 

17. Her veil is the astral fluid ; She is the soul 
of individuals and the receptacle of the Divine 
nucleus. 

18. Now the Divine Substance is not matter, but 
She is matter in its potential essence. 

19. She is the manifestation of personality, enclos- 
ing the Divine nucleus. 

20. There are some entities which remain for ever 
invisible and jntangible, being constituted only of two 
elements, that is of spirit and of soul. 

21. These are fluidic beings, changing their 
external forms according to the will of the Spirit 
which they have received. 

22. They are persons, because the plasmic sub- 
stance which envelops the spirit of each, hinders the 
intimate union of that spirit with other spirit. 

23. Spirit alone is diffuse, and the naked flame is 
liable to fuse with other flames. 

24. But the flame which is enclosed in substance 
has become an indiffusible personality. 

25. Other entities there are which are visible and 
tangible to material sense. 

26. For the Divine Substance which encloses the 
spirit of each, coagulates exteriorly and becomes 
matter in the outermost. 



230 " Clothed with the Su7i." 

27. So that the entity is composed of spirit, soul, 
and corporeal appearance. 

28. The outermost has become coagulate ; its 
inner content is fluid substance ; its innermost is 
spirit. 

29. The innermost is intangible light, which is the 
first generation ; manifest by the Will of God through 
the Word of God. 

30. The fluid medium is the firmament, which the 
Will of God divided from out of the great deep. 

31. And the outermost is the dry earth, which is 
matter; which the Will of God causeth to appear by 
the gathering together of the waters, that is of the 
first protoplasma. 

32. As of the greater, so also of the lesser. 

33. This is the great secret ; it is the mystery of 
generation. 

34. Now of these two kinds of entities, invisible 
and visible, there are innumerable varieties and 
orders, having different functions, consistence, form, 
and tinctures, and dimension. 

35. There are thrones, and dominions, and prin- 
cipalities, and powers. 

36. There are Christs, and prophets, and saints, 
and congregations of the elect. 

37. And concerning these the Spirit shall give you 
discernment hereafter. 



The First of the Gods. 231 

No. XL 

EPSILON, OR THE FIRST OF THE GODS. E 

Proem, 

MANY are the thrones which the Holy Spirit of 
Elohim hath vivified. 

2. They are centres of systems, bonds of graces, 
trees of life, suns of many worlds. 

3. And the colour of them is the colour of the 
ruby and of the fire ; and their name is, in the 
Hebrew, Uriel, and in the Greek, Phoibos, the Bright 
One of God. 

4. To whom are committed the dominion of the 
highest sphere, and the demonstration of the reason of 
all things which are manifest. 

5. The Spirit of whose being is the Spirit of 
Wisdom, which is the first of the holy Seven. 

6. Now, He — the angel of the sun — is not the 
Spirit of Wisdom, but the brightness of the glory 
thereof, and the express image of the selfsame spirit. 

7. He is the first of the Gods, and his praise is 
great, and his works are wonderful, and his throne is 
in the midst of heaven. 

8. He is that light which Adonai created on the 
first day. 

9. And before his face Python the mighty serpent 
fell from heaven, to make his dwelling in the caverns 
and in the secret places of earth. 



232 " Clothed with the Sun." 

Hymn to Phoibos. 

1. Strong art thou and adorable, Phoibos Apollo, 
who bearest life and healing on thy wings, who 
crownest the year with thy bounty, and givest the 
spirit of thy divinity to the fruits and precious things 
of all the worlds. 

2. Where were the bread of the initiation of the 
Sons of God, except thou bring the corn to ear ; or 
the wine of their mystical chalice, except thou bless 
the vintage ? 

3. Many are the angels who serve in the courts of 
the spheres of heaven : but thou, Master of Light 
and of Life, art followed by the Christs of God. 

4. And thy sign is the sign of the Son of Man in 
heaven, and of the Just made perfect ; 

5. Whose path is as a shining light, shining more 
and more unto the innermost glory of the day of the 
Lord God. 

6. Thy banner is blood-red, and thy symbol 
is a milk-white lamb, and thy crown is of pure 
gold. 

7. They who reign with thee are the Hierophants 
of the celestial mysteries ; for their will is the will of 
God, and they know as they are known. 

"8. These are the sons of the innermost sphere ; the 
Saviours of men, the Anointed of God. 

9. And their name is Christ Jesus, in the da}- of 
their initiation. 

10. And before them every knee shall bow, of 
things in heaven and of things on earth. 



Hymn to Phoibos. 233 

11. They are come out of great tribulation, and are 
set down for ever at the right hand of God. 

12. And the Lamb, which is in the midst of the 
seven spheres, shall give them to drink of the river of 
living water. 

13. And they shall eat of the tree of life, which is 
in the centre of the garden of the kingdom of God. 

14. These are thine, O Mighty Master of Light; 
and this is the dominion which the Word of God 
appointed thee in the beginning : 

1 5. In the day when God created the light of all the 
worlds, and divided the light from the darkness. 

16. And God called the light Phoibos, and the 
darkness God called Python. 

17. Now the darkness was before the light, as the 
ir\ht forerunneth the dawn. 

18. These are the evening and the morning of the 
first cycle of the Mysteries. 

19. And the glory of that cycle is as the glory of 
seven days ; and they who dwell therein are seven 
times refined ; 

20. Who have purged the garment of the flesh in 
the living waters ; 

21. And have transmuted both body and soul into 
spirit, and are become pure virgins. 

22. For they were constrained by love to abandon 
the outer elements, and to seek the innermost which 
is undivided, even the Wisdom of God. 

23. And Wisdom and Love are One. 



234 " Clothed with the Sun." 



No. XII. 

zeta, or the second of the gods. 

Part i. 

Proem. 
ND the Spirit of Wisdom gave counsel, whose 



A 



is the angel of the innermost sphere, the 
brightest of the sons of heaven. 

2. Lord Adonai, who createst, remember the souls 
beneath Thine altar. 

3. And put a firmament between them and Thee, 
to divide the upper from the nether, and the inner 
from the without. 

4. And whereas there hath been but one, let there 
henceforth be twain, the form and the substance, the 
apparent and the real ; 

5. That they who are bound may remain in the 
outer element. 

6. But to me Thou committest thine only beg 
who shall enter within the veil. 

7. And God made a firmament in the midst of all 
being, and divided the spirit from the body. 

8. And the firmament is the gate of the kingdom 
of heaven. 

9. And God gave the keys thereof to the angel oi 
the second sphere, whose spirit is the Spirit oi Under- 
standing. 

10. He is Hermes, the mediator, for he mediates 
between the outer and the inner. 



The Second of the Gods. 235 

11. He is the transmuter and the healer, Raphael 
the physician of souls. 

12. There is no riddle he shall not solve for thee, 
nor any solid he shall not melt, nor any wall he shall 
not pass through. 

13. Many are his states and his aspects; his weight 
is as lead, he runneth like water, he is light as the 
mist of dawn. 

14. Yet he is as a rock between earth and heaven, 
and the Lord God shall build his Church thereon ; F 

15. As a city upon a mountain of stone, whose 
windows look forth on either side. 

16. And upon the left are the kingdoms of the 
world and the shape" of illusion ; and upon the right 
are the heights of heaven and the kingdom of 
spirit. 

17. And to him are committed the keys of the 
invisible, and of the Holy of Holies within the 
veil. 

18. Whatsoever soul he shall bind, shall be bound 
in the outer and the nether. 

19. And whatsoever soul he shall loose, shall be 
loosed in the inner and the upper. 

20. He shutteth and no man openeth ; he setteth 
free and none shall bind again. 

21. And his number is the number of twain ; he is 
the angel of the twofold states. 

22. And the waters below and above the firma- 
ment, are the evening and the morning of the second 
day. G 



236 " Clothed with the Sun." 

Hymn to Hermes. 

1. As a moving light between heaven and earth ; 
as a white cloud assuming many shapes ; 

2. He descends and rises, he guides and illumines, 
he transmutes himself from small to great, from 
bright to shadowy, from the opaque image to 
diaphanous mist. 

3. Star of the East conducting the Magi : cloud 
from whose midst the holy th : by day 
a pillar of vapour, by night a shining flame 

4. I behold thee, Hermes, Son of God, slayer of 
Argus, H archangel, who Dearest the rod of knowledge, 
by which all things in heaven or on earth are 
1 ured. 

5. Double serpents entwine it, because as serpents 
the\- must be wise who desire God. 1 

6. And upon thy feet arc living wings, bearing 
thee fearless through space and over the abyss of 
darkness ; because they must be without dread to 
dare the void and the deep, who desire to attain and 
to achieve. 

7. Upon thy side thou wearest a sword o^ a single 
stone, two-edged, whose temper resisteth all thi 

8. For they who would slay or save must be armed 
with a strong and perfect will, defying and penetrat- 
ing with no uncertain force. 

9. This is llerpe. the sword which destroycth 
demons ; by whose aid the hero overcometh, and 
the saviour is able to deliver. 

10. Except thou bind it upon thy thigh thou shalt 



Hymn to Hermes. 237 

be overborne, and blades of mortal making shall pre- 
vail against thee. 

11. Nor is this all thine equipment, Son of God ; 
the covering of darkness is upon thine head, and none 
is able to strike thee. 

12. This is the magic hat, brought from Hades, 
the region of silence, where they are who speak 
not. 

13. He who bears the world on his shoulders shall 
give it to thee, lest the world fall on thee, and thou 
be ground into powder. J 

14. For he who has perfect wisdom and knowledge, 
he whose steps are without fear, and whose will is 
single and all-pervading ; 

15. Even he must also know how to keep the 
divine secret, and not to expose the holy mysteries 
of God to the senses of the wicked. 

16. Keep a bridle upon thy lips, and cover thy head 
in the day of battle. 

17. These are the four excellent things, — the rod, 
the wings, the sword, and the hat. 

18. Knowledge, which thou must gain with labour: 
the spirit of holy boldness, which cometh by faith in 
God ; a mighty will, and a complete discretion. 

19. He who discovers 1 the holy mysteries is lost. 

20. Go thy way in silence, and see thou tell no 
man. 

1 I.e., uncovers, or discloses, to profane eyes. 



238 " Clothed with the Sun! 1 

Part 2. 
An Exhortation of Hermes to his Neophytes. 

1. He whose adversaries fight with weapons of 
steel, must himself be armed in like manner, if 
he would not be ignominiously slain or save him- 
self by flight. 

2. And not only so, but forasmuch as his adver- 
saries may be main', while he is only one ; it is even 
necessary that the steel he carries be of purer temper 
and of more subtle point and contrivance than theirs. 

3. I, Hermes, would arm you with such, that bear- 
ing a blade with a double edge, ye may be able to 
withstand in the evil hour. 

4. For it is written that the tree of life is guarded 
by a sword which turneth every way. 

5. Therefore I would have you armed both with a 
perfect philosophy and with the power oi the divine 
life. 

6. And first the knowledge ; that you and they 
who hear you may know the reason of the faith which 
is in you. 

7. But knowledge cannot prevail alone, and ye are 
not yet perfected. 

8. When the fulness of the time shall come, I will 
add unto you the power o( the divine life. 

9. It is the life of contemplation, of fasting, of 
obedience, and of resistar 

10. And afterwards the chrism, the power, and the 
glory. But these are not yet 



Exhortation of Hermes. 239 

11. Meanwhile remain together and perfect your 
philosophy. 

12. Boast not, and be not lifted up; for all things 
are God's, and ye are in God, and God in you. 

13. But when the word shall come to you, be ready 
to obey. 

14. There is but one way to power, and it is the 
way of obedience. 1 

15. Call no man your master or king upon the 
earth, lest ye forsake the spirit for the form and 
become idolaters. 

16. He who is indeed spiritual, and transformed 
into the divine image, desires a spiritual king. 

17. Purify your bodies, and eat no dead thing that 
has looked with living eyes upon the light of Heaven. 

18. For the eye is the symbol of brotherhood 
among you. Sight is the mystical sense. 

19. Let no man take the life of his brother to feed 
withal his own. 

20. But slay only such as are evil ; in the name of 
the Lord. 

21. They are miserably deceived who expect eternal 
life, and restrain not their hands from blood and 
death. 

22. They are miserably deceived who look for wives 
from on high, and have not yet attained their man- 
hood. 

23. Despise not the gift of knowledge ; and make 
not spiritual eunuchs of yourselves. 

1 At this point the seeress was shown a garland of fig-leaves, the 
symbol of Hermes. For its meaning see pp. 38-41, and 242, 243. 



240 u Clothed with the Sun.* 

24. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 

25. Ye are twain, the man with the woman, and 
she with him, neither man nor woman, but one 
creature. 

26. And the kingdom of God is within you. K 



No. XIII. 
ETA^OR (MYSTICALLY) THE THIRD OF THE GODS.L 

Part i. 
Proem. 

THE mystery of thine orbit, O Earth, and the 
secret of the work of the third day ; 

2. Which the wise of old knew not, for the Lord 
God withheld them. 

3. The Light is as wisdom, the water as understand- 
ing, and the dry earth as the force and power of 
things. 

4. Phoibos first, and Hermes next, and last the 
kingdom of Dionysos. 

Hymn to the Planet- ( 

(1.) 

1. O Father Iacchos ; thou art Lord of the Body, 
God manifest in the flesh ; 

2. Twice bor , baptised with fire, quickened by the 
spirit, instructed in secret things be eath the earth: 

3. Who wearest the horns of the ram, who ridest 



Hymn to Iacchos. 241 

upon an ass, whose symbol is the vine, and the new- 
wine thy blood ; 

4. Whose Father is the Lord God of Hosts ; whose 
Mother is the daughter of the King. M 

5. Evoi, Iacchos, Lord of initiation ; for by means 
of the body is the soul initiated : 

6. By birth, by marriage, by virginity, by sleep, by 
waking, and by death : 

7. By fasting and vigil, by dreams and penance, by 
joy, and by weariness of the flesh. 

8. The body is the chamber of ordeal : therein is 
the soul of man tried. 

9. Thine initiates, O Master, are they who come 
out of great tribulation, whose robes are washed in 
the blood of the vine. 

10. Give me to drink of the wine of thy cup, that I 
may live for evermore : 

11. And to eat of the bread whose grain cometh up 
from the earth, as the corn in the ear. 

12. Yea; for the body in which man is redeemed, 
is of the earth ; it is broken upon the cross ; cut down 
by the sickle ; crushed between grindstones. 

13. For by the suffering of the outer, is the inner 
set free. 

14. Therefore the body which thou givest is meat 
indeed, and the word of thy blood is drink indeed. 

15. For man shall live by the word of God. 

16. Evoi, Father Iacchos : bind thy Church to the 
vine, and her elect to the choice' vine. 

17. And let them wash their garments in wine, and 
their vesture in the blood of grapes. 

Q 



242 " Clothed with the Sun" 

(2-) 

18. Evoi, Tacchos: Lord of the body, and of the 
house whose symbol is the fig ; 

19. Whereof the image is the figure of the matrix, 
and the leaf as a man's hand : whose stems bring 
forth milk. 

20. For the Woman is the mother of the living; 
and the crown and perfection of humanity. 

21. Her body is the highest step in the ladder of 
incarnation, 

22. Which leadeth from earth to Heaven ; upon 
which the spirits of God ascend and descend. 

23. Thou art not perfected, O soul, that hast not 
known womanhood. 

24. Evoi, Iacchos : for the day comcth wherein thy 
sons shall eat of the fruit of the fig : yea, the vine 
shall yield new grapes; and the fig-tree shall be no 
more barren. 

25. For the interpretation of hidden things is at 
hand; and men shall eat of the precious fruits of God. 

26. They shall eat marina from heaven ; and shall 
drink of the river of Salem. 

27. The Lord maketh all things new : He taketh 
away the letter to establish the spirit. 

28. Then spakest thou with veiled face, in parable 
and dark saying : for the time of figs was not yet 

29. And the\- who came unto the tree of life sought 
fruit thereon and found it not. 

30. And from thenceforth until now hath no man 
eaten of the fruit of that tree. 



Hymn to lacckos. 243 

31. But now is the gospel of interpretation come, 
and the kingdom of the Mother of God. 

32. Evoi, Iacchos, Lord of the body ; who art 
crowned with the vine and with the fig. 

33. For as the fig containeth many perfect fruits in 
itself, so the house of man containeth many spirits. 

34. Within thee, O man, is the universe ; the 
thrones of all the Gods are in thy temple. 

35. I have said unto men, Ye are Gods ; ye are all 
in the image of the Most High. 

36. No man can know God unless he first under- 
stand himself. 

37- God is nothing that man is not. 

38. What man is, that God is likewise. 

39. As God is at the heart of the outer world, so 
also is God at the heart of the world within thee. 

40. When the God within thee shall be wholly 
united to the God without, then shalt thou be one 
with the Most High. 

41. Thy will shall be God's will, and the Son shall 
be as the Father. 

42. Thou art ruler of a world, O man ; thy name 
is legion ; thou hast many under thee. 

43. Thou sayest to this one, Go, and he goeth ; and 
to another, Come, and he cometh ; and to another, 
Do this, and he doeth it. 

44. What thou knowest is told thee from within ; 
what thou workest is worked from within. 

45. When thou prayest thou invokest the God 
within thee ; and from the God within thee thou re- 
ceivest thy good things. 



244 " Clothed with the Sim. 1 ' 

46. Thy manifestations are inward ; and the 
spirits which speak unto thee are of thine own 
kingdom. 

47. And the spirit which is greatest in thy kingdom, 
the same is thy Master and thy Lord. 

48. Let thy Master be the Christ of God, whose 
Father is the Lord Iacchos. N 

49. And Christ shall be thy lover and the saviour 
of thy body ;° yea, He shall be thy Lord God, and 
thou shalt adore Him. 

50. But if thou wilt not, then a stronger than thou 
art shall bind thee, and spoil thine house and thy 
goods. 

51. An uncleanly temple shalt thou be; the hold 
of all manner of strife and evil beasts. 

52. For a man's foes are of his own household. 

53. But scourge thou thence the money-changers 
and the merchants, lest the house of thy prayer be- 
come unto thee a den of thieves. 



(30 

54. Evoi, Father Iacchos : Lord of the thyrsos and 
of the pine-cone. 

55. As arc the involutions of the leaves of the 
cone, so is the spiral of generation, — the progress and 
passing-through o( the soul 

56. From the lower to the higher ; from the coarse 
to the fine ; from the base to the apex ; 

57. From the outer to the inner ; yea. from the 
dust of the ground to the throne of the Most High. 



Hymn to Iacchos. 245 

(4-) 

58. Evoi, To Nysaee : God of the garden and of the 
tree bearing fruit. 

59. The dry land is thine, and all the beauty of 
earth ; the vineyard, the garland, and the valleys of 
corn. 

60. The forests, the secrets of the springs ; the 
hidden wells, and the treasures of the caverns. 

61. The harvest, the dance, and the festival ; the 
snows of winter, and the icy winds of death. 

62. Yea, Lord Iacchos ; who girdest destruction 
with promise and graftest comeliness upon ruin. 

63. As the green ivy covereth the blasted tree, and 
the waste places of earth where no grass groweth ; 

64. So thy touch giveth life and hope and meaning 
to decay. 

65. Whoso understandeth thy mysteries, O Lord 
of the Ivy, hath overcome Death and the fear thereof. 

(5-) 

66. Evoi, Eather Iacchos, Lord God of Egypt : 
initiate thy servants in the halls of thy Temple ; 

67. Upon whose walls are the forms of every 
creature : of every beast of the earth, and of every 
fowl of the air ; 

68. The lynx, and the lion, and the bull : the ibis 
and the serpent: the scorpion and every flying 
thing. 

69. And the columns thereof are human shapes ; 
having the heads of eagles and the hoofs of the or 



246 " Clothed with the Sun" 

70. All these are of thy kingdom : they are the 
chambers of ordeal, and the houses of the initiation 
of the soul. 

71. For the soul passeth from form to form ; and 
the mansions of her pilgrimage are manifold. 

72. Thou callest her from the deep, and from the 
secret places of the earth ; from the dust of the 
ground, and from the herb of the field. 

73. Thou covcrcst her nakedness with an apron of 
fig-leaves; thou clothest her with the skins ofbeas 

74. Thou art from of old, O soul of man ; yea, 
thou art from the everlasting*. 

75. Thou puttest oft' thy bodies as raiment ; and as 
vesture dost thou fold them up. 

y6. They perish, but thou remainest : the wind 
rendeth and scattereth them ; and the place of them 
shall no more be known. 

J J. For the wind is the Spirit of God in man, which 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor 
whither it shall go. 

yS. Even so is the spirit of man, which cometh 
from afar oft" and tarrieth not, but passeth away to a 
place thou knowest not. 

(6.) 

79. Evoi, Iacchos, Lord of the Sphinx : who 
linkest the lowest to the highest ; the loins of the 
wild beast to the head and breast of the woman. 

80. Thou boldest the chalice o( divination : all the 
forms of nature are reflected therein. 



Hymn to Iacchos. 247 

81. Thou turnest man to destruction: then thou 
sayest, Come again, ye children of my hand. 

82. Yea, blessed and holy art thou, O Master of 
Earth : Lord of the cross and the tree of salva- 
tion. 

83. Vine of God, whose blood redeemeth ; bread of 
heaven, broken on the altar of death. 

84. There is corn in Egypt ; go thou down into her, 
O my soul, with joy. 

85. For in the kingdom of the body thou shalt eat 
the bread of thine initiation. 

86. But beware lest thou become subject to the 
flesh, and a bond-slave in the land of thy sojourn. 

87. Serve not the idols of Egypt ; and let not the 
senses be thy taskmasters. 

88. For they will bow thy neck to their yoke ; they 
will bitterly oppress the Israel of God. 

89. An evil time shall come upon thee ; and the 
Lord shall smite Egypt with plagues for thy sake. 

90. Thy body shall be broken on the wheel of God ; 
thy flesh shall see trouble and the worm. 

91. Thy house shall be smitten with grievous 
plagues ; blood, and pestilence, and great darkness ; 
fire shall devour thy goods ; and thou shalt be a prey 
to the locust and creeping thing. 

92. Thy glory shall be brought down to the dust ; 
hail and storm shall smite thine harvest ; yea, thy 
beloved and thy first-born shall the hand of the Lord 
destroy ; 

93. Until the body let the soul go free ; that she 
may serve the Lord God. 



248 " Clothed with the Sun." 

94. Arise in the night, O soul, and fly, lest thou be 
consumed in Egypt. 

95. The angel of the understanding shall know thee 
for his elect, if thou offer unto God a reasonable faith. 

96. Savour thy reason with learning, with labour, 
and with obedience. 

97. Let the rod of thy desire be in thy right hand ; 
put the sandals of Hermes on thy feet; and gird thy 
loins with strength. 

98. Then shalt thou pass through the waters of 
cleansing, which is the first death in the body. 

99. The waters shall be a wall unto thee on thy 
right hand and on thy left. 

100. And Hermes the redeemer shall go before 
thee ; for he is thy cloud of darkness by day, and thy 
pillar of fire by night. 

101. All the horsemen of Egypt and the chariots 
thereof; her princes, her counsellors, and her mighty 
men : 

102. These shall pursue thee, O soul, that fliest ; 
and shall seek to bring thee back into bondage. 

103. Fly for thy life ; fear not the deep ; stretch 
out thy rod over the sea ; and lift thy desire unto 
God. 

104. Thou hast learnt wisdom in Egypt ; thou hast 
spoiled the Egyptians ; thou hast carried away their 
fine gold and their precious things. 

105. Thou hast enriched thyself in the body ; but 
the body shall not hold thee ; neither shall the waters 
of the deep swallow thee up. 

106. Thou shalt wash thy robes in the sea of re- 



Hymn to Iacchos, 249 

generation ; the blood of atonement shall redeem thee 
to God. 

107. This is thy chrism and anointing, O soul ; 
this is the first death ; thou art the Israel of the 
Lord, 

108. Who hath redeemed thee from the dominion 
of the body, and hath called thee from the grave, and 
from the house of bondage, 

109. Unto the way of the Cross, and to the path in 
the midst of the wilderness ; 

1 10. Where are the adder and the serpent, the 
mirage and the burning sand. 

in. For the feet of the saint are set in the way of 
the desert. 

112. But be thou of good courage, and fail thou not ; 
then shall thy raiment endure, and thy sandals shall 
not wax old upon thee. 

113. And thy desire shall heal thy diseases; it 
shall bring streams for thee out of the stony rock ; it 
shall lead thee to Paradise. 

114. Evoi, Father Iacchos, Jehovah-Nissi ; Lord of 
the garden and of the vineyard ; 

115. Initiator and lawgiver; God of the cloud and 
of the mount. 

1 16. Evoi, Father Iacchos ; out of Egypt hast thou 
called thy Son. 



250 " Clothed with the Sun? 

Part 2. 

Hymns to the Elemental Divinities, 

(a.) 

To HepJiaistos. 

1. The spirits of the elements bear thee company, 
Lord Iacchos, whose wheels encompass thy planet, 
who hold the four corners thereof. 

2. Hephaistos the Fire-King, whose symbol is the 
red lion, Lord of the serpent, the flame, and of the 
secret parts of the earth ; 

3. Whose veins are full of fire, whose breath is 
destruction and burning, whose finger maketh the 
hills to smoke, 

4. Ah! beware how thou invoke him ; as a lion he 
devoureth ; he rendeth and swalloweth as a furious 
beast of pre)-. 

5. He purifieth and laveth waste ; the land is as 
the Garden of Eden before him, and behind him a 
desolate wilderness. 

6. He commandeth the inmost zone of things; 
his hammer is the Lightning, and his anvil the load- 
stone. 

7. He maketh all bodies therewith, he fuseth and 
deviseth ; whether in the small or in the great, 
whether in the outer or in the inner, before Demetej 
is Hephaistos. 

8. He endoweth all metals with power, and fashion- 
eth all manner of precious amulets. 

9. The gold of the womb of earth is his, the mer- 



Hymn to Hephaistos. 251 

cury, and the iron of the mine, the sulphur, the onyx, 
and the crystal. 

10. All his galleries are luminous with mirrors of 
fire, wherein are manifold and wondrous images : the 
glory of princes, the wealth of nations, yea, the splen- 
dour of all the kingdoms of the world. 

11. He blindeth and deludeth the eyes of men; he 
encompasseth the foolish with illusions, and smiteth 
the feeble with madness. 

12. Even Lucifer, Lord of the Crystal, which hath 
power to bind the children of earth, for therein are 
imprisoned the spirits of the fire. 

13. Serve not the fire nor the crystal, and be not 
undone by their sorcery. 

14. For the spirits of lust and illusion obey the 
crystal, and they who love the light of it shall fall 
under the dominion of Lucifer. 

15. Be thou master of the fire, and command it; 
let not the cloven tongue of the serpent beguile thee; 
neither barter thy liberty for the fruit of enchant- 
ment. 

16. For the fire shall be quenched by the water, 
and the water shall be resolved into spirit. 

17. But if the fire consume thy soul, it shall be 
scattered abroad as ashes, and return to the dust of 
the earth. 

18. For it is fire that tries every man's work, and 
purifies the substance of all souls. 

19. By fire is the initiate baptised, by fire the obla- 
tion is salted ; and the flame shall devour the dross 
of the crucible. 



252 " Clothed with the Szm. 9 

20. That which endureth unto the end, the same 
shall be saved. 

21. Therefore be praised, Hephaistos, thou and thy 
wheel ; be praised, O searching and purgatorial Fire ! 



03.) 

Hymn to De meter, 

1. And thou, Dcmeter, fair Earth-Mother, whose 
bosom the patient ox treadcth, whose hands are full 
of plenty and blessing. 

2. Angel of the crucible, guardian of the dead, 
who makest and unmakest, who combinest and dis- 
solvest, who bringest forth life out of death, and 
transformest all bodies. 

3. They are sown as seed in thy furrows ; they are 
buried therein, as the droppings of the ripened ear; 
from thy womb they came forth, and to thee they 
return, O Mother of birth and of sleep ! 

4. Who makest the volatile to be fixed, and the 
real to be apparent, whether in the great or the small, 
whether in the outer or the inner. 

5. Who yokest the cattle of the field to thy plough, 
for thy dominion is of the held, O daughter of Time ; 
thou bind est not the sons of the air and the sea. 

6. But to the gross thou art gross, and to the subtle 
thou art subtle. 

7. Be praised, Demeter, cunning and multiform 
alchemist; be praised, — thou and thy wheel, O fruit- 
ful Spirit of Earth! 



Hymn to Poseidon. 253 

(y.) 

Hymn to Poseidon. 

1. And Poseidon, Lord of the Deep, Master of the 
substance of all creatures, who weareth the face of 
an angel, for he is the Father of Souls. p 

2. His brow is dark with storms, his voice is as 
the thunder of cataracts in the mountains ; he is 
subtle, and swift, and strong; he is mightier than 
all the children of earth. 

3. All things are of the sea-salt, for without salt 
matter is not, whether of the outer or of the inner, 
whether of the small or of the great. 

4. Behold the manifold waves of the sea, which rise 
and sink, which break and are lost, and follow each 
other continually; even as these are the transmuta- 
tions of the soul. 

5. For the soul is one substance, as is the water of 
the deep, whose waves thou canst not number, neither 
tell their shapes, for the form of them passeth away ; 
even as these are the incarnations of the soul. 

6. And the secret of Thetis is the mystery of the 
Metamorphosis. 

7. Out of the sea the horse ariseth ; strength and 
intelligence are begotten of the deep. 

8. She is the mother of Avatars, and her cup is the 
chalice of bitterness : whoso drinketh thereof shall 
taste of power and knowledge, and of tears of salt. 

9. Be thou praised, O Poseidon, thou and thy 
wheel ; be praised, O chrism of the soul, mighty and 
variable Spirit of the Sea ! 



254 " Clothed with the Sun! 

05.) 
Hymn to Pallas Athena 

1. And thou, Athena, blue-eyed virgin, Mistress of 
the Air, eagle-headed, who givest to all bodies the 
breath of life : 

2. Immaculate mother of the word of prophecy, 
symbol oi the holy essence, goddess of the segis and 
of the spear : 

3. Spirit of the whirlwind, secret breather of wisdom, 
fortifier of the soul, inspirer of armies : 

4. Shining maid, by whose spear we vanquish, for 
interior wisdom thrusteth all things through ; by 
whose shield we are covered, for interior purity pre- 
serveth from all contagion. 

5. By thine aid, O Athena, strong and undefiled, by 
thine aid the hero overcometh in the battle. 

6. By thine aid, O armed and winged wisdom, thy 
servant shall smite the lust of the world. 

7. Upon whose beauty, whoso looketh, is changed 
into stone; who feedeth upon the souls ot men. Q 

8. Be praised, O Atluni, thou and thy wheel ; be 
praised in the great and the small, in the outer and 
the inner, invisible and immaculate Spirit of Life! 

to 

Efti 

I. These are the four great Genii, which are the 
angels of the Earth, the spirits o( the elements of the 
macrocosm and the microcosm. 



The Fourth of the Gods. 255 

These are the fourfold Sphinx of the four states, — 
of the flesh, of the intermediary, of the human, 'and 
of the divine. 

Of the house of bondage in the land of Egypt ; 

Of the ark of the covenant in the wilderness ; 

Of the gate and the tree of Eden ; 

Of the celestial chariot and the throne of Adonai. 

And the wheels of their fourfold kingdom encircle 
the whole earth ; and are full within and without of 
the eyes of life. R 



No. XIV. 

THETA, OR (MYSTICALLY) THE FOURTH OF 

the gods.l 

Part i. 

The Hymn of Aphrodite} 

(1.) 

I AM the dawn, daughter of heaven and of the 
deep : the sea-mist covers my beauty with a veil 
of tremulous light. 

2. I am Aphrodite, the sister of Phoibos, opener of 
heaven's gates, the beginning of wisdom, the herald of 
the perfect day. 

3. Long had darkness covered the deep : the soul 
of all things slumbered : the valleys were filled with 
shadows : only the mountains and the stars held 
commune together. 

1 Home, received in sleep. September 19, 1884. 






> '/ 



256 u Clothed with the Sun? 

4. There was no light on the ways of the earth : 
the rolling world moved outward on her axe : gloom 
and mystery shrouded the faces of the Gods. 

5. Then from out the deep I arose, dispeller of 
night: the firmament of heaven kindled with joy 
beholding me. 

6. The secrets of the waters were revealed : the 
eyes of Zeus looked down into the heart thereof. 

7. Ruddy as wine were the depths: the raiment of 
earth was transfigured; as one arising from the dead 
She arose, full of favour and grace. 

( 2 .) 

8. Of God and the soul is love born : in the silence 
of twilight ; in the mystery of sleep. 

9. In the fourth dimension of space; in the womb 
of the heaven ly principle ; in the heart of the man of 
God ; — there is love enshrined. 

10. Yea, I am* before aU things : desire is born of 
me : I impel the springs of life inward unto God : by 
me the earth and heavens are drawn together. 

11. But I am hidden until the time of the day's 
appearing : I lie beneath the waters of the sea, in the 
deeps of the soul : the bird of night seeth me not, 
the herds in the valleys, nor the wild goat in the cleft 
of the hill. 

12. As the fishes of the sea am I covered: I am 
secret and veiled from sight as the children of the 
deep. 

13. That which is occult hath the fish for a symbol ; 
for the fish is hidden in darkness and silence : he 



Hymn of Aphrodite. 257 

knoweth the secret places of the earth, and the springs 
of the hollow sea. 

14. Even so love reacheth to the uttermost : so find 
I the secrets of all things ; having my beginning and 
my end in the Wisdom of God. 

15. The Spirit of Counsel is begotten in the soul: 
even as the fish in the bosom of the waters. 

16. From the sanctuary of the deep love ariseth : 
salvation is of the sea. 

(3.) 

17. I am the crown of manifold births and deaths : 
I am the interpreter of mysteries and the enlightener 
of souls. 

18. In the elements of the body is love imprisoned : 
lying asleep in the caves of Iacchos ; in the crib of 
the oxen of Demeter. s 

19. But when the day-star of the soul ariseth over 
the earth, then is the epiphany of love. 

20. Therefore until the labour of the third day be 
fulfilled, the light of love is unmanifest. 

21. Then shall I unlock the gates of dawn; and 
the glory of God shall ascend before the eyes of men. 

(4-) 

22. The secret of the angel Anael is at the heart 
of the world : the " Song of God " is the sound of 
the stars in their courses. 

23. O love, thou art the latent heat of the earth ; 
the strength of the wine ; the joy of the orchard and 
the cornfield : thou art the spirit of song and laughter, 
and of the desire of life. 

R 



2 53 " Clothed with the Sun." 

24. By thee, O goddess, pure-eyed and golden, the 
sun and the moon are revealed : love is the counsellor 
of heaven. 

25. Cloud and vapour melt before thee : thou un- 
veilest to earth the rulers of the immeasurable skies. 

26. Thou makest all things luminous : thou dis- 
coverest all deeps, 

27. From the womb of the sea to the heights of 
heaven ; from the shadow}- abyss to the throne of 
the Lord. 

28. Thy beloved is as a ring-dove, wearing the 
ensign of the spirit, and knowing the secrets thereof. 

29. Fly, fly, O Dove ; the time of spring cometh ; 
in the far east the dawn ariseth ; she hath a message 
for thee to bear from earth to heaven 1 T 

Part 2 

A Discourse of the Communion of Sou/es, and of the 
Uses of Love between Creature and Creature: 

being Part of the Go/dene Booke of J 'euus. x 

1. Herein is Love's Secret, and the Mysterie of the 
Communion o\' Saintes. 

2. Love redeemeth. Love lifteth up, Love en- 
lighteneth, Love advanceth Soules. 

1 Printed as read in a book in German text, found in a chamber 
purporting to be the laboratory of William Lilly, theastn 
century), to which the seercss had been introduced by lie: 
sleep for the purpose of having her horoscope told. Failing to recover 
the whole of the poem on the first attempt to write it down, she sought 
pnd obtained access to the book again on the following night. 



Hymn of Love. 259 

3. Love dissolveth not, neither forgetteth ; for she 
is of the Soule and hath everlasting Remembrance. 

4. Verilie Love is doubly blessed; for She enricheth 
both Giver and Receiver. 

5. Thou who lovest givest of thyself to thy Beloved, 
and he is dowered withal. 

6. And if any Creature whom thou lovest sufTereth 
Death and departeth from thee ; 

7. Fain wouldst thou give of thine Heartes Blood 
to have him live always ; to sweeten the Changes 
before him, or to lift him to some happie Place. 

8. Thou droppest teares on the broken Body of thy 
Beloved ; thy Desire goeth after him, and thou criest 
unto his Ghoste, — 

9. "O Dearest! would God that I might be with 
thee where now thou art, and know what now thou 
doest ! 

10. " Would God that I might still guard and 
protect thee ; that I might defend thee from all 
Pain, and Wrong, and Affliction ! 

1 1. " But what Manner of Change is before thee I 
know not ; neither can mine Eyes follow thy Steppes. 

12. "Many are the Lives set before thee, and the 
Yeares, O Beloved, are long and weary that shall 
part us ! 

13. " Shall I knowe thee again when I see thee, and 
will the Spirit of God say to thee in that day, ' This 
is thy Beloved ?' 

14. " O Soule of my Soule ! would God I were one 
with thee, even though it were in death ! 

15. "Thou hast all of my Love, my Desire, and my 



260 " Clothed with the Sun!* 

Sorrowe ; yea, my Life is mingled with thine, and is 
gone forth with thee ! 

16. "Visit me in Dreames ; comfort me in the 
Night-watches ; let my Ghoste meet thine in the 
Land of Shadovves and of Sleep ! 

17. "Every nighte with fervent Longing will I seek 
thee; Persephone and Slumber shall give me back the 
Past 

18. "Yea, Death shall not take thee wholly from 
me ; for Part of me is in thee, and where thou goest, 
Dearest, there my Hearte followeth ! " 

19. So weepest thou and lamentest, because the 
Soul thou lovest is taken from thy Sight. 

20. And Life seemeth to thee a Bitter Thing; yea, 
thou cursest the Destiny of all Living Creature 

21. And thou deemest thy Love of no Avail, and 
thy Tcares as idle Droppes. 

22. Behold, Love is a Ransome, and the Teares 
thereof are Prayeres. 

23. And if thou have lived purely, thy fervent 
Desire shall be counted Grace to the Soule of thy 
Dead. 

24. For the burning and continual Prayere of the 
Juste availeth much. 

25. Yea, thy Love shall enfold the Soule which 
thou lovest ; it shall be unto him a wedding Garment 
and a Vesture of Blessing. 

26. The Baptisme of thy Sorrowe shall baptize thy 
Dead, and he shall rise because o( it. 

27. Thy Prayeres shall lift him up, and thy 
Teares shall encompasse his Steppes ; thy Love 



Hymn of Love. 261 

shall be to him a Light shining upon the upward 
Waye. 

28. And the Angels of God shall say unto him, 
" O happie Soule, that art so well beloved ; that art 
made so strong with all these Teares and Sighs. 

29. " Praise the Father of Spirits therefor, for this 
great Love shall save thee many Incarnations. 

30. " Thou art advanced thereby ; thou art drawn 
aloft and carried upward by Cordes of Grace." 

31. For in such wise do Soules profit one another 
and have Communion, and receive and give Blessing, 
the Departed of the Living, and the Living of the 
Departed. 

32. And so much J.ie more as the Hearte within 
them is clean, and the Waye of their Intention 
is innocent in the Sight of God. 

33. Yea, the Saint is a strong Redeemer; the 
Spirit of God striveth within him. 

34. And God withstandeth not God ; for Love and 
God are One. 

35. As the Love of Christ hath Power with the 
Elect, so hath Power in its degree the Love of a Man 
for his Friend. 

36. Yea, though the Soule beloved be little and 
mean, a Creature not made in the Likenesse of 
Men. 

37. For in the eyes of Love there is nothing little 
nor poor, nor unworthy of Prayere. 

38. O little Soule, thou art mighty if a Child of 
God love thee ; yea, poor and simple Soule, thou art 
possessed of great Riches. 



262 " Clothed with the Sun" 

39. Better is thy Portion than the Portion of Kings 
whom the Curse of the Oppressed pursueth. 

40. For as Love is strong to redeem and to 
advance a Soule, so is Hatred strong to torment and 
to detain. 

41. Blessed is the Soule whom the Juste commemo- 
rate before God ; for whom the Poor and the Orphan 
and the dumb Creature weep. 

42. And thou, O Righteous Man, that with burning 
Love bewailest the Death of the Innocent, whom 
thou canst not save from the Hands of the Unjuste; 

43. Thou who wouldst freely give of thine own 
Blood to redeem thy Brother and to loosen the 
Bonds of his Paine ; 

44. Know that in the Hour of thy supreme Desire, 
God accepteth thine Oblation. 

45. And thy Love shall not return unto thee 
empty ; according to the Greatnesse of her Degree, 
she shall accomplish thy Will. 

46. And thy Sorrowe and Teares, and the Travaile 
of thy Spirit, shall be Grace and Blessing to the Soule 
thou wouldst redeem. 

47. Count not as lost thy Suffering on behalf of 
other Soules ; for every Cry is a Prayere, and all 
Pray ere is Power. 

48. That thou wiliest to do is clone; thine Intention 
is united to the Will of Divine Love. 

49. Nothing is lost of that which thou layest out 
for God and for thy Brother. 

50. And it is Love alone who redeemeth, and Love 
hath nothing of her own. 



The Last of the Gods. 263 

No. XV 

LAMBDA, OR THE LAST OF THE GODS J U 

being the Secret of Satan. 

AND on the seventh day there went forth from 
the presence of God a mighty angel, full of 
wrath and consuming, and God gave unto him the 
dominion of the outermost sphere. 

2. Eternity brought forth time ; the boundless gave 
birth to limit ; being descended into generation. 

3. As lightning I beheld Satan fall from heaven, 
splendid in strength and fury. 

4. Among the Gods is none like unto Him, into 
whose hand are committed the kingdoms, the power 
and the glory of the worlds : 

5. Thrones and empires, the dynasties of kings, the 
fall of nations, the birth of churches, the triumphs of 
time. 

6. They arise and pass, they were and are not ; the 
sea and the dust and the immense mystery of space 
devour them. 

7. The tramp of armies, the voices of joy and of 
pain, the cry of the new-born babe, the shout of the 
warrior mortally smitten. 

8. Marriage, divorce, division, violent deaths, 
martyrdoms, tyrannous ignorances, the impotence of 
passionate protest, and the mad longing for oblivion : 

9. The eyes of the tiger in the jungle, the fang of 



264 " Clothed with the Si 111." 

the snake, the foetor of slaughter-houses, the wail of 
innocent beasts in pain : 

10. The innumerable incarnations of spirit, the 
strife towards manhood, the ceaseless pulse and cur- 
rent of desire : — 

11. These are his who beareth all the Gods on his 
shoulders ; v who establisheth the pillars of necessity 
and fate. 

12. Many names hath God given him, names of 
mystery, secret and terrible. 

13. God called him Satan the Adversary, because 
matter opposeth spirit, and time accuseth even. the 
saints of the Lord. 

14. And the Destroyer, for his arm breaketh and 
grindeth to pieces ; wherefore the fear and the dread 
of him are upon all flesh. 

15. And the Avenger, for he is the anger of God; 
his breath shall burn up all the souls of the wicked. 

16. And the Sifter, for he straineth all things 
through his sieve, dividing the husk from the grain ; 
discovering the thoughts of the heart ; proving and 
purifying the spirit o( man. 

17. And the Deceiver, for he maketh the false 
appear true, and concealeth the real under the mask 
of illusion. 

18. And the Tempter, for he setteth snares before 
the feet of the elect : he beguileth with vain shows, 
and seduceth with enchantments. 

19. Blessed are they who withstand his sub: 
they shall be called the Sons of God, and shall enter 
in at the beautiful ^ates. 



The Secret of Sa tan. 265 

20. For Satan is the doorkeeper of the temple of 
the King : he standeth in Solomon's porch ; he holdeth 
the keys of the sanctuary ; 

21. That no man may enter therein save the 
Anointed, having the arcanum of Hermes. 

22. For Satan is the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord, 
which is the beginning of wisdom. 

23. He is the devourer of the unwise and the evil: 
they shall all be meat and drink to him. 

24. Whatsoever he devoureth, that shall never more 
return into being. 

25. Fear him, for after he hath killed, he hath 
power to cast into hell. 

26. But he is the servant of the Sons of God, and of 
the children of light. 

27. They shall go before him, and he shall follow 
the steps of the wise. 

28. Stand in awe of him and sin not : speak his 
name with trembling ; and beseech God daily to 
deliver thee. 

29. For Satan is the magistrate of the justice of 
God : he beareth the balance and the sword, 

30. To execute judgment and vengeance upon all 
who come short of the commandments of God ; to 
weigh their works, to measure their desire, and to 
number their days. 

31. For to him are committed weight and measure 
and number ; 

32. And all things must pass under the rod and 
through the balance, and be fathomed by the sound- 
ing-lead. 



266 " Clothed with the Sun'' 

33. Therefore Satan is the minister of God, Lord 
of the seven mansions of Hades, the angel of the 
manifest worlds. 

34. And God hath put a girdle about his loins, 
and the name of the girdle is Death. 

35. Threefold are its coils, for threefold is the 
power of Death, dissolving the bod}-, the ghost, and 
the soul. 

36. And that girdle is black within, but where 
Phoibos strikes it is silver. 

37. None of the Gods is girt save Satan, for upon 
him only is the shame of generation. 

38. He hath lost his virginal estate : uncovering 
heavenly secrets, he hath entered into bone: 

39. He encompasseth with bonds and limits all 
things which are made : he putteth chains round 
about the worlds, and determineth their orbits. 

40. By him are creation and appearance ; by him 
birth and transformation ; the day of begetting and 
the night of death. 

41. The glory of Satan is the shadow of the Lord : 
the throne of Satan is the footstool of Adonai. 

42. Twain are the armies of God: in heaven the 
hosts of Michael ; in the abyss the legions of Satan. 

43. These are the unmanifest and the manifest; 
the free and the bound ; the virginal and the fallen. 

44. And both are the ministers of the Father, ful- 
filling the word divine. 

45. The legions of Satan are the creative emana- 
tions, having the shapes of dragons, oi Titans, an 
elemental gods ; 



The Secret of Satan. 267 

46. Forsaking the intelligible world, 1 seeking mani- 
festation, renouncing their first estate ; 

47. Which were cast out into chaos, neither was 
their place found any more in heaven. 

(2.) 

48. Evil is the result of limitation, and Satan is the 
Lord of limit. 

49. He is the father of lies, because matter is the 
cause of illusion. 

50. To understand the secret of the kingdom of 
God, and to read the riddle of Maya, this is to have 
Satan under foot. 

51. He only can put Satan underfoot who is re- 
leased by thought from the bonds of desire. 

52. Nature is the allegory of spirit : all that appear- 
eth to the sense is deceit : to know the truth, — this 
alone shall make men free. 

53. For the kingdom of Satan is the house of 
matter: yea, his mansion is the sepulchre of Golgotha, 
wherein on the seventh day the Lord lay sleeping, 
keeping the Sabbath of the unmanifest. 

54. For the day of Satan is the night of spirit : the 
manifestation of the worlds of form is the rest of the 
worlds informulate. 

55. Holy and venerable is the Sabbath of God: 
blessed and sanctified is the name of the angel of 
Hades ; 

56. Whom the Anointed shall overcome, rising 
again from the dead on the first day of the week. 

1 Of which the sensible world is the antithesis. 



268 " Clothed with the Sun? 

57. For the place of Satan is the bourne of divine 
impulsion : there is the arrest of the outgoing force ; 
Luza, the station of pause and slumber : 

58. Where Jacob lay down and dreamed, beholding 
the ladder which reached from earth to heaven. 

59. For Jacob is the planetary angel Iacchos, the 
Lord of the body ; 

60. Who hath left his father's house, and is gone 
out into a far country. 

61. Yet is Luza none other than Bethel; the king- 
dom of Satan is become the kingdom of God and of 
His Chri.st. 

62. For there the Anointed awakeneth, arising from 
sleep, and goeth his way rejoicing ; 

63. Having seen the vision of God, and beheld the 
secret of Satan ; 

64. Even as the Lord arose from the dead and 
brake the seal of the sepulchre ; 

65. Which is the portal of heaven, Luza, the house 
of separation, the place of stony sleep ; 

66. Where is born the centripetal force, drawing 
the soul upward and inward to God ; 

67. Recalling Existence into Being, resuming the 
kingdoms of matter in spirit ; w 

6S. Until Satan return unto his first estate, and 
enter again into the heavenly obedience ; 

69. Having fulfilled the will oi the Father, and 
accomplished his holy ministry ; 

70. Which was ordained of God before the worlds, 
for the splendour of the manifest, and for the genera- 
tion of Christ our Lord ; x 



The Seven Spirits of God. 



269 



71. Who shall judge the quick and the dead, putting 
all things under his feet ; whose are the dominion, the 
power, the glory, and the Amen. Y 



XVI. 



THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD AND THEIR CORRESPONDENCES. 





Elohim or Arch- 
angels. 


Signification. 


Gods. 


Office. 


I. 


Uriel 


= Fire of God. 


Phoibos Apollo. 


Angel of the Sun. 


2. 


Raphael 


= Physician of God. 


Hermes. 


Angel of Mercury. 


3- 


Anael 


= Sweet Song of God. Aphrodite. 


Angel of Venus. 


4- 


Salamiel 


= Acquired of God. 


Dionysos. 


Angel of the Earth. 


5- 


Zacchariel 


= Man of God. 


Ares. 


Angel of Mars. 


6. 


Michael 


= Like unto God. 


Zeus and Hera. 


Angel of Jupiter. 


7- 


Orifiel (or Satan) = Hour of God. 


Kronos. 


Angel of Saturn. 




Gabriel 


= Strength of God. 


Artemis or Isis. 


Angel of the 
Moon. 


Tincture of Ray. 


The Spirit of 


Tincture of Ray. 


The Spirit of 


1. 


Red. 


Wisdom. 


6. Purple. 


Righteousness. 


2. 


Orange. 


Understanding. 


7. Violet. 


Divine Awe. 


3- 


Yellow. 


Counsel. 




(HenceReverence 


4- 


Gveen. 


Power. 




and Humility.) 


5- 


Blue. 


Knowledge. 







White, being the combination of all the rays, implies full illumination and 
intuition of God, the symbol of which is the full moon, and is the symbol of 
initiation, Attaining to this state, the soul is the mystical " Woman clothed 
with the Sun," of Apoc. xii. I. Gabriel, the angel of this state, represents the 
reflective principle of the soul. He is not one of the seven E] >him, but is the 
complement of them all, being the spirit of all the moons. 



270 



" Clothed Willi the Sum" 



No. XVII. 

THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOMS OF THE 
SEVEN SPHERES, 



I believe in the Holy 
Ghost, 

Whose seven spirits are as 
the seven rays of light ; 

The Holy Catholic 
Church, 

Or, kingdom of heaven 
within man ; 

The Communion of 

Saints, 
Or, the elect ; 



The Forgiveness of Sins, 
Or, passing-through of souls ; 



The Nous, or Sun, of the micro- 
cosm, the Spirit of Wisdom, 
the ray of whose angel, Phoi- 
bos, is the red of the inner- 
most sphere. 

Hermes, or Peter, the Spirit 
of Understanding, and rock 
whereon the true Church is 
built, the guardian and inter- 
preter of the holy mysteries. 

Aphrodite, Venus, love, the 
Spirit of Counsel, or prin- 
ciple of sympathy, harmony, 
and light, whereby heaven 
and earth are revealed to 
each other and drawn to- 
gether. 

Iacchos, the initiator, Lord 
of transmigration, whereby 
alone Karma is satisfied and 
sins wiped out by expiation 
and repentance. As the 
Spirit of Power, he represents 
the force whereby creation 
and redemption alike are 
accomplished, the direction 
only being reversed. 



The Mysteries of the Seven Spheres. 2 7 1 



The Resurrection (which 
is the redemption) of the 
body, 

From material limitations ; 



The Life Everlasting 



And the Amen, 

Or, final consummation. 



Ares, or Mars, the war-god, 
and Spirit of Knowledge, of 
whom comes contention, at 
the cost of suffering and 
death, for the divine know- 
ledge whereby man learns 
the secret of transmutation, 
which is the crowning con- 
quest of matter by spirit. 

Zeus and Hera, rulers of heaven, 
the dual Spirit of Righteous- 
ness or godliness, which is 
justice, or the perfect balance, 
and the secret of eternal 
generation. 

Saturn, or Satan, the Spirit of 
the Ftar of the Lord, being 
the angel — unfallen— of the 
outermost sphere, and keeper 
of the boundary of the divine 
kingdom, within which is 
the perfection, and without 
which, the negation of being. 



[The man fully regenerate needs no "moon" to reflect to him 
the "sun." Wherefore Gabriel, having no function to fulfil 
in the perfected kosmos, is indrawn, and does not appear in 
these mysteries. See Part I., No. XIV. part 2, " Concerning 
the Genius."] 



PART THE THIRD. 



CONCERNING THE DIVINE IMAGE 

OR 

THE VISION OF ADONAI. 



CONCERNING THE DIVINE IMAGE, OR THE VISION 
OF ADONAI. 

[Owing at once to the sanctity and the unpronounceability of 
the Tetragrammaton, or word of four letters which in the 
Hebrew constitutes the name Jehovah, the Hebrews invariably 
substitute for it in speaking the name Adonai, which in the A. V. 
is rendered " the Lord." These names are, however, substantially 
identical, in that they alike imply a duality corresponding to 
that of the sexes, — a duality which arises, necessarily, from the 
nature of the function fulfilled by their bearer, which is that of 
the expression, word, or manifestor of Deity in the dual character 
of Father-Mother, as expounded in Nos. VII. and VIII. of 
Part II. ; from which it follows that this Person of the Trinity 
is, properly, not "Son" merely, but "Son-Daughter." As thus 
exhib ted, the Trinity consists of Father, Mother, and Child, 
— (respective ly energy, substance, and phenomenon), — and repre- 
sents a mode of the godhead which, logically (not chronologically, 
time having no relation to the eternal), is antecedent to that 
of the ecclesiastical Trinity, wherein the " Son " appears as the 
second person, and the Holy Spirit as the third. For in this 
aspect, the "Mother" (substance) is merged in the "Father" 
(energy or will), the two together constituting one person, — the 
first, and the Son appears as the second, while the third is the 
Holy Spirit, or divinity in its dynamic or active mode as dis- 
tinguished from its static or passive mode. Proceeding from 
the Father-Mother through the Son, and identical in nature with 
them, the Holy Spirit is, like them, dual, and consists of both 
energy and substance. For which reason the names and symbols 
denoting the Holy Spirit are masculine or feminine, according 
to the aspect or function concerned. On its procession through 



276 u Clothed with the Sun." 

the Son the Holy Spirit differentiates into the seven modes or 
potencies called the Seven Spirits of God (as described in Xos. 
VI., VIII., and X. of Part II.) dividing, like light on its emer- 
gence from the prism, into seven rays. These are the Seven 
Spirits of God, the creative Elohim, which, with the three persons 
of the Trinity, constitute the ten Sephiroth of the Kabala. 
Functions of the Supreme and essential principles in the Divine 
nature, they are styled, on entering into manifestation, Gods and 
Archangels ; and inasmuch as they are manifold and various as 
the spheres and kingdoms of nature, in all of which they are 
operative, and comprise grades and distinctions innumerable, 
repeating themselves like the notes of the musical scale in mam- 
keys and tones, their names are rather titles of orders than 
designations of individuals. In no case can they be apprehended 
of the outer senses, but to souls sufficiently mature and sensitive 
they manifest themselves under forms personal and symbolical 
of their offices, being both seen and heard of the interior self- 
hood. And just as the Rainbow is one, though rainbows are 
legion, — inasmuch as all these are manifestations of one and the 
same principle inhering in the nature of light, — so is each divinity 
one, however multiplied his personality, inasmuch as every 
appearance is but a fresh manifestation of one and the same 
principle subsisting in the divine nature, and for that reason 
subsisting also in every soul that is able to polarise divinity. 
Thus is the soul " Mother of God" and also of the Gods, and 
u Man is a universe in himself, having the thrones of all the 
Gods in his temple." And of their cc-operation is the edification 
of the world into the kingdom of Gcd, and of man in the Divine 
image, that of Adonai. Attaining to this image, man has and is 
Christ, Christ being the correspondent, equivalent, or counter- 
part in man, of Adonai in substance. And, saving Adonai 
himself, they are the highest objects of the sensible perception 
of the soul. That Adonai is the highest of all such objects is 
because he is the image beheld in the point of the focus formed 
by the convergence of all the consciousnesses of the system and 
their polarisation to the highest plane. Beyond him is the 
" Invisible Light," — the " Divine Dark ■ of the early Christian 



Concerning the Divine Image. 277 

mystics, 1 — the boundless sea of infinite wisdom, love, and 
power, informulate and unmanifest, the universally -diffused 
divinity ; impersonal in the radical sense of the word, but 
personal in the highest degree in its true sense, that of essen- 
tial consciousness ; and in Adonai taking form and personality 
in both senses. 

The Jehovah or Adonai of the Hebrews is thus no mere "tribal" 
god, as supposed by writers more learned and ingenious than 
experienced or percipient, on the strength of the defective pre- 
sentations of Him in the Hebrew Scriptures ; nor is He but a 
partial aspect only of deity, or a being unreal and imaginary. 
He is actually the one and supreme divinity, the central, radiant, 
and pivotal point of the universe — its spiritual sun — the God of 
Gods, from whom all others proceed, and of whom all others are 
modes and aspects. And He is this absolutely and indefeasibly, 
how defective and misleading soever the human conceptions and 
presentations of Him. And being recognised as such, He is 
fitly described as a "jealous" God, in that he reprobates the 
ascription to the low or to a part, of the honour due only to the 
highest and to the whole ; and He is this, not for His own sake, 
• — He cannot suffer loss — but for the sake of those His creatures 
who, by limiting their ideal of the Divine perfection, withhold 
themselves from the realisation of their own perfection, and 
thereby from being made in the Divine image. For what man 
thinks, that he is. 

The vision about to be described of Adonai, was received 
without any previous knowledge on the part of its recipient, 
either of its possibility, or of its having always been claimed as 
a recognised fact of mystical experience, the allusions to it in 
the Bible, 2 although by no means rare, having altogether escaped 
her recognition as having any real basis in the consciousness. 8 

1 J£.g., St Dionysius "the Areopagite." 

2 Ex. xxiv. 9-1 1 ; Is. vi. I j Ezek. viii. 2 ; Dan, vii. 9, 10; Apoc. iv. ; 
xx. 11. 

3 The reception of it by myself a lew mouths previously had been 
similarly independent of knowledge or anticipation, and I had been 
constrained to maintain an absolute reserve in regard to it. The 






278 " Clothed with the Sun." 

On this occasion she had been forewarned of something of un- 
usual solemnity as about to occur, and prompted to make 
certain ceremonial preparations obviously calculated to impress 
the imagination. The access came upon her while standing by 
the open window, gazing at the moon, then close upon the full. 1 
The first effect of the ajfl.itus was to cause her to kneel and 
pray in a rapt attitude, with her arms extended towards the 
sky. It appeared afterwards, that under an access of spiritual 
exaltation, she had yielded to a sudden and uncontrollable 
impulse to pray that she might be taken to the stars, and shown 
all the glory of the universe. Presently she rose, and after 
gazing upwards in ecstasy for a few moments, lowered her eyes, 
and, clasping her arms around her head as if to shut out the 
view, uttered in tones of wonder, mingled with moans and cries 
of anguish, the following tokens of the intolerable splendour of 
the vision she had unwittingly invited] : — 

" Oh, I see masses, masses of stars ! It makes me 
giddy to look at them. O my God, what masses! 
Millions and millions! Wheels of planets! 2 O my 
God, my God, why didst Thou create ? It was by 
Will, all Will, that Thou didst it. Oh: what might, 
what might of Will ! Oh, what gulfs! what gulfs! 
Millions and millions of miles broad and deep! 

account in The Perfect Way (IX. v.) was written from our joint ex- 
periences. Many of our experiences were thus duplicated, hers, how- 
ever, far exceeding mine both in number and in fulness of detail. The 
latter, probably, because I always made a point of retaining posses 
of the external consciousness, in order to observe and record at the same 
time, and not knowing the result of letting myself go altogether. 

1 It was at Paris, July 23. 1877. 

2 It was as if there had been suddenly opened to her view a 
universe of inter-planetary systems, invisible to the bodily sight; and 
while dazzlingly bright to the spiritual eyes, of a consistency too tenuous 
to intercept or refract the solar ray 5 . A like effect would also be pro- 
duced by entering the fourth dimension oi space, where all things would 
be beheld unmodified by distance or any intervening medium. 






W 



Concerning the Divine Image. 279 

Hold me — hold me up ! I shall sink — I shall sink 
into the gulfs. I am sick and giddy, as on a billowy 
sea. I am on a sea, an ocean — the ocean of infinite 
space. Oh, what depths ! what depths ! I sink — I 
fail ! I cannot, cannot bear it ! 

" I shall never come back. I have left my body 
for ever. I am dying ; I believe I am dead. Im- 
possible to return from such a distance ! Oh, what 
colossal forms ! They are the angels of the planets. 
Every planet has its angel standing erect above it. 
And what beauty — what marvellous beauty ! I see 
Raphael. I see the angel of the earth. He has six 
wings. He is a god — the god of our planet. I see 
my genius, who called himself A. Z. ; but his name 
is Salathiel. 1 Oh, how surpassingly beautiful he is ! 
My genius is a male, and his colour is ruby. Yours, 
Caro, 2 is a female, and sapphire. They are friends — 
they are the same — not two, but one ; and for that 
reason they have associated us together, and speak of 
themselves sometimes as /, sometimes as We. It is 
the angel of the earth himself that is your genius and 
mine, Caro. He it was who inspired you, who spoke 

1 " Lent of God." Every divinity has a separate name for each office 
fulfilled by him. Salathiel thus denotes the angel of the earth in his 
capacity as head of the order of Genii, in the sense of being the supreme 
spirit (of the planet) of whom each genius is a manifestation, and into 
whom they return on the accomplishment of their mission. As the first 
and last letters of the alphabet, A and Z, correspond to the " Alpha and 
Omega," in the sense of implying comprehension of the genii of all 
orders or grades, and consequently all the rays of the spiritual prism. 

2 A spiritual or ' ' initiation " name that had been given to me, as Mary 
to her. The latter, however, was also one of her own names. 



280 " Clothed with the Sun" 

to you. 1 And they call me Bitterness. And I see 
sorrow — oh, what unending sorrow do I behold ! 
Sorrow, always sorrow, but never without love. I 
shall always have love. How dim is this sphere ! 
Oh, save me — save me ! It is my demon that I am 
approaching. It is Paris — Paris himself, once of 
Troy, now of the city that bears his name. He is 
floating recumbent. He turns his face towards me. 
How beautiful and dark he is ! Oh, he has goat's 
horns — he has goat's horns ! Save me, save me from 
him ! Ah, he sees me not. I forgot I am invisible. 
Now I have passed him. 2 

" I am entering a brighter region now. What 
glorious form of womanhood is that, so queenly, so 
serene, and endowed with all wisdom ? It is Pallas 
Athena, — a real personage in the spiritual world ! 
And yonder is one of whom I have no need to ask. 
I am passing through the circle of the Olympians. 
It is Aphrodite, mother of love and beauty. O 
Aphrodite, spirit of the waters, firstborn of God, how 
could I adore thee ! And men on earth now deem 
the gods and goddesses of Greece mere fables ! And I 
behold them living and moving in strength and beauty 
before me ! I see also the genii of all the nations 
dwelling serenely in heavenly circles. What crowds 
and crowds of gods from India and Egypt! Who 

1 The reference here is to an experience of my own, the relation of 
which does not fall within the scope of this book. 

" The reference here is to sundry visitations by which she had been 
harassed previous to my joining her in Paris, the cause of which she 
thus recognised for the first time, and whom she was wont to call her 
demon, using the term in its conventional sense. 



one a 



■ j ling the Divine Image. 281 



are those with the giant muscles ? They are Odin 
and Thor, and their fellow-gods of Scandinavia. Not 
dead and lost ; only withdrawn from the world 
whereon they sought in vain to stamp their images 
for ever. 

" Oh, the dazzling, dazzling brightness ! Hide me, 
hide me from it ! I cannot, cannot bear it ! It is 
agony supreme to look upon. O God ! O God ! 
Thou art slaying me with Thy light. It is the throne 
itself, the great white throne of God that I behold ! 
Oh, what light! what light! It is like an emerald ? 
a sapphire ? No ; a diamond. In its midst stands 
Deity erect, His right hand raised aloft, and from Him 
pours the light of light. Forth from His right hand 
streams the universe, projected by the omnipotent 
repulsion of His will. Back to His left, which is de- 
pressed and set backwards, returns the universe, drawn 
by the attraction of His love. Repulsion and at- 
traction, will and love, right and left, these are the 
forces, centrifugal and centripetal, male and female, 
whereby God creates and redeems. Adonai ! O 
Adonai ! Lord God of life, made of the substance of 
light, how beautiful art Thou in Thine everlasting 
youth ! with Thy glowing golden locks, how adorable ! 
And I had thought of God as elderly and venerable ! 
As if the Eternal could grow old ! And now not as 
Man only do I behold Thee ! For now Thou art to 
me as Woman. Lo, Thou art both. One, and Two 
also. And thereby dost Thou produce creation. O 
God, O God ! why didst Thou create this stupen- 
dous existence? Surely, surely, it had been better in 



282 " Clothed with the Sun" 

love to have restrained Thy will. It was by will that 
Thou createdst, by will alone, not by love, was it not ? 
— was it not ? I cannot see clearly. A cloud has 
come between. 

" I see Thee now as Woman. Maria is next beside 
Thee. Thou art Maria. Maria is God. Oh Maria ! 
God as Woman '. Thee, Thee I adore ! Maria 
Aphrodite ! Mother ! Mother-God ! 

"They are returning with me now, I think. But I 
shall never get back. What strange forms ! how huge 
they are ! All angels and archangels. Human in 
lorm, yet some with eagles' heads. All the planets 
Lre inhabited ! how innumerable is the variety of 
forms ! O universe of existence, how stupendous 
W existence ! Oh ! take me not near the sun ; I 
cannot bear its heat. Already do I feel m\ 
burning. Here is Jupiter! It has nine moons! 
Yes. nine. Some are exceedingly small. And, oh, 
how red it is ! It has so much iron. And what 
enormous men and women ! There is evil there 
too. For evil is wherever are matter and limitation. 
But the people of Jupiter are far better than we on 
earth. They know much more; they are much wiser. 
There is less of evil in their planet. Ah ! and they 
have another sense. What is it ? Xo, I cannot 
describe it. I cannot tell what it is. It differs from 
any of the others. We have nothing like it. I 
cannot get back yet I believe I shall never get back. 
I believe I am dead. It is only my body you are 
holding. It has crown cold for want of me. Vet 
I must be approaching It is growing shallower. 



Concerning the Divine Image, 283 

We are passing out of the depths. But I can never 
wholly return — never — never." 

[Her apprehension was not without justification ; for her body 
was completely torpid, and several hours passed before con- 
sciousness was fully restored to it. 

It is impossible for anyone who did not witness the intensely 
dramatic action and emphasis with which these ejaculations 
were uttered, to form anything like an adequate conception of 
the sense of reality they conveyed. Able as I was from my own 
experience above referred to, to follow her in her journey from 
sphere to sphere to the very highest and inmost, I found it im- 
possible to doubt that the seeress was in the right, when, re- 
calling her recollections, she declared her conviction that what 
she had beheld was no illusion, but the reality itself of the 
universe. There was for both of us the same sense of journeying 
through vast abysses of space and traversing various spheres of 
being ; and the same conviction that the journey was at once to 
the centre of one's own and to that of all consciousness. 

She described the attitude and expression of Adonai as those 
of the absolute calmness and repose of the power without effort 
which is predicable only of the Infinite. Though bearing the 
aspect of humanity, it was impossible, she felt, to represent the 
form in fixed outline, and declared that it seemed like a sacrilege 
to attempt thus to portray it. She nevertheless made the 
attempt, with the result reproduced below. It represents, how- 
ever, only the masculine aspect, the impression of the feminine 
having entirely failed to reach her outer consciousness ; and 
this had been the case also on the only other occasion on which 
she had beheld it. (See p. 85.) In this respect our experiences 
differed. She was most strongly impressed by the masculine, 
or will, element in Deity ; and I by the feminine, or love, ele- 
ment. In another respect, too, there was a difference. For her 
the form was that of one standing erect, and though calm, 
energetic : for me it was that of the "Sitter on the Throne" 
and wholly reposeful, though similarly engaged in the act 
of projection and recall. These differences were doubtless 



284 



" Clothed with the Sun." 



due to difference of temperament in the beholders. The 
soul is a living lens which invests with its own '•tincture" the 
objects beheld by it.J 




"Solve et Coagula" (Dissolve and Resume, cr Project and Recall). 

A ncUni Hermttic Formula. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



Note A, pages 45, 52, 210, 211, 269, 271. 

THE long-standing controversy respecting the meaning of Nirvftna 
has been resolved for us in favour of both the interpretations assigned 
to it. This is to sny that, while it means extinction, the extinction 
implied is of two different kinds. Of these, one, called the celestial 
Nirvana, denotes the perfectionment and perpetuation of the essential 
selfhood of the individual, accompanied by the extinction of the 
external and phenomenal selfhood. Thus indrawn to his centre, the 
individual ceases to ex-ist, but does not cease to be. In other words, 
he is, but is not manifest, the term existence, as opposed to being, 
implying the standing-forth, or objectivisation, of that which is, 
subjectively. The condition implies the return from matter to sub- 
stance or spirit. 

The "Nirvana of the Amen," on the contrary, denotes the extinc- 
tion, not only of the externality of the individual, but of the individual 
himself; this occurring through the persistent indulgence of a perverse 
will to the outer and lower, such as to induce a complete deprivation 
of the inner and higher constituents of man, and so to divest his system 
of its binding principle as to render not only possible, but inevitable, 
complete dissolution and disintegration, to the total extinction of the 
individuality concerned. There is no loss of substance or spirit. 

The term Amen in this relation signifies consummation or finality. 

Note B, page 210. 

Like the so-called "damnatory" clauses of the "Athanasian 
Creed," this declaration is simply a solemn recognition, first, of the 
doctrine that salvation is neither arbitrary nor compulsory, but condi- 
tional and optional, the alternative to it being extinction ; and, next, of 
the Credo as a summary of the conditions of salvation. These, it is 



288 " Clothed with the Sun! 9 

true, are expressed in terms which, in being symbolical, do not beat 
their meaning upon the face of them ; but none the less are the condi- 
tions themselves so simple and obvious as to be recognisable as self- 
evident and necessarily true. That is to say, they represent the steps 
of a process necessary to be enacted in the soul, and founded in the 
nature of the soul itself; so that, when understood, the belief in them 
makes no greater strain upon the faculties than does the belief in any 
self-evident proposition whatever. Rather would the difficulty be to 
disbelieve them. 

Wherefore — to state the case in other words — the declaration of the 
soul's extinction through non compliance with the conditions herein 
affirmed to be indispensable to its perpetuation, made by the initiate 
in the terms of the Credo, is the exact parallel and counterpart of the 
declaration of the body's extinction through non-compliance with the 
conditions indispensable to its continuance, made by the physiologist 
in the terms of his craft. The language is in each case technical, but. 
the truths it conceals (from the non-initiate) are incontestible ; and so 
far from their being disbelieved by those who do not understand them, 
they are invariably acted upon by all — who are of sound mind — to the 
best of their ability, despite their failure to understand them. For, 
alike for soul and body, there is that within man which does believe, 
and which accordingly does comply with the conditions requisite for his 
welfare, quite independently of his knowledge of processes and terms 
spiritual or physiological, and which needs but fair play, and not to be 
thwarted by his own perverse will, to accomplish his salvation. 

Wherefore the declaration in question is no menace, but rather is it 
a promise, — a promise that when the time comes to understand the 
process whereby salvation is accomplished, the very fact that it is 
understood is a token that salvation is accomplished ; for once under- 
stood, it can no more be disbelieved than gravitation or any other 
certainty of the physical world. 

Now, to have this understanding is to be "initiated.* 

Note C, page 215. 

On the conclusion of this instruction, the better to enable the seeiess 
to comprehend the description given in verses 9 and 16, a vision was 
given her of two human forms, having their molecules, the one in the 
order of man regenerate, and the other in the disorder of man un- 



Appendix. 



289 



regenerate, as on the two sides, A and B, of the fig. below, which repre- 
sents a combination of the half of each form thus beheld. In the case of 
specific organs, the rays represent the magnetic direction of each organ 
as a whole, and not that of its constituent molecules, since the orderly 
polarisation of these is not to the common centre of the system, but 
to the centre of their own particular organ, and only mediately through 
this to the common centre. 

Similarly, figs. C and D show the physiologic unit or cell — the type 
of every kosmical entity — the former in its fully-developed and healthy 
state, wherein the protoplasmic contents are pure, and the nucleus and 
nucleolus (which correspond to the soul and spirit) fully developed, and 
the magnetic poles convergent ; and the latter in a rudimentary and 
disorderly condition, with the nucleolus or spirit as yet unpolarised. 
The four spheres correspond respectively to the physical, the astral, 
the psychic, and the spiritual ; or body, mind, soul, and spirit. 




290 " Clothed with the SiuiP 

Note D, page 226 
This must be taken as a poetic rather than as a scientific expression. 

Note E, page 231. 

These Hymns of the Gods were, like all else in the text, rece 
under illumination, occurring chiefly in sleep, over a number of years 
commencing in 1878. They consti^te a synthesis of the Sacred 
Mysteries of the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Hebrews, and the 
Christians, — the last three of which were derived from the first, and 
are substantially identical with it and with each other ; and they are 
expressed in terms derived indifferently from them all. 

That they represent, at least in a great measure, a recovery of rituals 
and formulae, oral or written, which were actually used in the ancient 
Mysteries, and of which the writers of the Bible largely availed them- 
selves, was not only positively declared to us, but was indicated by the 
circumstances under which a considerable portion of them was ob- 
tained. For example, No. XIII., the hymn to lacchos, the planet- 
god, was chiefly obtained in dreams, wherein the secress found herself 
re-enacting what she felt, and was positively assured, had been a scene 
in one of her own former existences, when she had chanted it in chorus 
as one of a body of priests and priestesses making solemn procession 
through the vast aisle.- of an Egyptian temple. 

Concerning the purpose of this restoration and certain other par- 
ticulars in relation to the Gods, see the preface and the note on \ age 

Note F, page 235. 

As is well known to students of occult science, the name of Hermes 
has from prehistoric times been for the Western World the synonym at 
once for profound problems and for interpretative insight, his claim to 
have possessed " the three parts of the knowledge of the whole kosmos" 
— science, philosophy, and religion — having always been recc^: 
Whether the name originally denoted some actual man from whom, for 
his eminence in knowledge, it was I to the divinity, 

whether it originally denoted the divinity, and was assigned to some 
man supposedly or really inspired by him, there is no historical 
evidence to determine. It is sufficient to know, as an indul 
historical fact, that some of the profoundest of the sages of old el. 



Appendix. 291 

Hermes the divinity as the source of their knowledge, and that the 
manner of its reception corresponded in all respects with that under 
which the illuminations in this book were received. It was as the 
divine principle itself of understanding that he was recognised by the 
Hermetists in the saying — 

"Est in Mercurio quicquid quserunt sapientes;" 1 

and by the authors of that wondrous compendium of Hebrew transcend- 
talism, the Kabala, when they declared that "all the mysteries are in 
Chockmah," — the Nous of the Greeks ; as also by the famous Neopla- 
tonist, Proklos, when he thus wrote : — 

" Hermes, as the messenger of God, reveals to us His paternal Will, 
and — developing in us the intuition — imparts to us knowledge. The 
knowledge which descends into the soul from above, excels any that 
can be attained by the mere exercise of the intellect. Intuition is the 
operation of the soul. The knowledge received through it from above, 
descending into the soul, fills it with the perception of the interior 
causes of things. The Gods announce it by their presence, and by 
illumination, and enable us to discern the universal order." 

For "in the Celestial, all things are Persons;" and it is as Persons 
that the divine Principles manifest themselves in and to the soul, being 
seen and heard of it, when duly receptive and percipient. That the 
forms under which they manifested themselves to Anna Kingsford 
were those of Egypt and Greece, was — we were assured — because she 
had been an initiate of the Greco-Egyptian mysteries, and those forms 
were indelibly impressed upon her. 

Now of all those who have been enlightened by Hermes, the doctrine 
is identical, and it is the basic doctrine of all sacred scriptures. 

The name Hermes, which is Greek, signifies both rock and inter- 
preter, — that which stands under and that which understands. And (as 
stated in " The Perfect Way," i. 20) it was to Hermes as the inspirer 
and prompter of the confession of Simon, and not to the man, that 
Jesus addressed the apostrophe, " Thou [the Understanding] art the 
Peter, or rock, upon which I build my church." Called Peter as the 
utterer of the confession, Simon has always been claimed as himself 
the rock of the church. He has also been assigned the office — likewise 
that of Hermes— of guardian of the mysteries. But he has yet to 
justify his claim to be the fulfiller of that other function of Hermes, 

I All is in Hermes that the wise seek. 



292 " Clothed with the Sun." 

that of being their interpreter. Hitherto, as represented by the church 
which claims him as its especial patron, he has manifested him-elf only 
in his New Testament role — rebuked by Jesus — of the cutter off, not of 
the opener, of ears. 

Note G, page 235. 

As the Spirit of Understanding it is the function of Hermes to re- 
cognise and indicate limits and distinctions between things that differ, 
in whatever department of existence, so that there be no confusion or 
intrusion. Hence, on the physical plane, he was accounted the guardian 
of boundaries and landmarks. But though thus discerning and marking 
limitations, he was not the author of them. That was the function of 
the angel of the outermost sphere, the " last of the Gods,'' Saturn or 
Satan, as explained in Note U. 

Note II, page 236. 

Argus, the monster with a hundred eyes, represents the "power of 
the stars" over the soul,— the power, that is, of Karma, or the destiny 
acquired by the soul through its defects of conduct during the unre- 
generate stages of its existence. As it is for want of understanding, 
of its own nature and that of existence, that the soul comes thus under 
bondage, it falls to Hermes, as the angel of the understanding, to rescue 
the soul by imparting to it the r its perfection- 

ment. Thus emancipated by Hermes from the trammels of fate, the 
soul rises superior to all limitations, and, becoming as a " woman 
clothed with the sun," wears a> jewels in her crown the stars over 
which she has triumphed, each of which thus denotes a spiritual g 
or gift acquired in the conflict with materiality. And so, for her, 
Hermes is said to have slain A further information on this 

subject see " The Perfect Way," VII. 27 and IX. 13-17. And for the 
importance attached by the Bible to the office of Hermes, see the 
numerous ted in the concordance under the various forms of 

the word :< 

Note I, page 236. 

Serpents when used to denote wisdom are the "seraphs" or rays of 
the (spiritual) sun, i.e., they are divine emanations. The "serpent 
of the dust,"' or of the astral and lower nature, is the obverse of the 






Appendix. 293 

seraph, and represents cunning rather than wisdom, as shown in its 
stealthy and sinuous mode of progression. 

Note J, page 237. 

Atlas implies Discretion. He was one of the Titans, or mundane 
spirits, and "brother" of Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoitios, or 
Precaution, Reflection, and Deliberation bred of, and exercised in, 
ignorance and distrust of God. In this aspect he is a type of the dis- 
cretion taught by experience of the crushing weight of the world on 
those who are devoid of that quality especially as shown by their 
inability to restrain speech. 

Note K, page 240. 

The occasion made use of to give us this " exhortation" was one of 
peculiar interest. The late Laurence Oliphant was at that time the 
English representative and agent of Thomas Lake Harris, the 
founder and chief of a certain mystical brotherhood in the United 
States. And having heard from a mutual friend of our spiritual work 
and experiences, and desiring to gain recruits for his chief, he came 
to Paris to see us, when, after putting to us sundry questions, he de- 
clared that we were possessed of the requisite qualifications, and called 
upon us to renounce everything we were doing and place ourselves at 
the disposal of Harris, whom he announced as the prophet and king 
of the new dispensation, and in short, a new avatar of Christ. Failing 
to do this, we should, he assured us, infallibly incur dire catastrophe. 
Knowing nothing of Harris's doctrine, but respecting him for his un- 
doubted poetic faculty, and having a high regard for his emissary, with 
whom I had some previous acquaintance, we begged for further infor- 
mation. This was accordingly vouchsafed us, but only with the result 
of our finding ourselves in hopeless disagreement, on account of what 
we deemed its fanciful character, its failure to satisfy the needs either 
of the mind or of the soul, and the nature of the experiences on which it 
was founded. For, though recognising these as real, we also recognised 
them as appertaining, not to the spiritual and divine region of man's 
nature, but to the magnetic and astral, and as representing a disorderly 
condition of this. And in confirmation of this view Mrs Kingsford was 
on the following night given a dream, in which she beheld a wilderness 
teeming with sirens, loreleis, and other phantasmal forms, which she was 



294 * Clothed with the Stin." 

given to understand were of the order of those who pretended to be the 
" counterpartal angels" and "arch-natural women" of Harris's schc ol 
— afterwards called by Oliphant " Sympneumata " — but which were the 
morbid products of that part of man's system which is always mystically 
called the wilderness, being the astral region which intervenes between 
the " Egypt " of the purely material, and the " Promised Land " of the 
purely spiritual ; — a region, indeed, which has to be entered and tra- 
versed by all seekers after perfection, but which must on no account 
be mistaken for the goal or unduly loitered in. 

A second visit from Oliphant served in no way to reconcile us to his 
views, but rather the contrary. And early on the following morning, 
Mrs Kingsford received the " exhortation " in question, in response, 
apparently, to an earnest request of mine, made without her cognisance, 
for some definite instruction which might be serviceable to our visitor 
as well as to ourselves. This hope as regarded him prored vain ; as 
after the receipt of a copy of it he made no response, nor ever again 
approached us. The chief points in respect of which it condemns the 
doctrine propounded by our visitor are — 

(i.) Its rejection of mental training and intellectual knowledge — in 
short, of the Undemanding — in favour of extraneous influences and 
phenomenal experiences, as the source and criterion of truth. 

(2.) Its exaltation of an earthly personage as spiritual king and master. 
/ (3.) Its failure to recognise a diet ol flesh as incompatible with the 
highest aspirations; and, 

(4.) Its fanciful sex-relations and doctrine of "counterparts," which 
last, we were subsequently instructed, is a travesty, due to delusive 
spirits, of the mystical process in the soul called the "marriage of 
regeneration ;" — the errors in question being those whereby neophytes 
are peculiarly liable to be ensnared. 

It is due to Oliphant to state that he afterwards seceded from Harris, 
and modified his teaching. But the change was not radical, and an 
examination of his later views failed to diminish in the least the interval 
be: ween us. 

This occasion was the first on which Hermes expressly avowed him- 
self, though not the first on which he assumed the guidance over us 
and our work, while leaving us to identify him for ourselves. Two 
of Mrs Kingsford's earliest experiences in this respect are related in 
"Dreams and Dream-Stories,'" Xos. II. and IX., in the former of 
which he directed us to combine our faculties tor the prosecution of the 



Appendix, 295 

interpretative work to which I had already been long devoted ; and 
in the latter of which he prescribed rigid abstinence, especially from 
flesh and cooked food, as an essential condition for the full perception 
of things spiritual. On the former occasion he presented himself in 
the double aspect of a letter-carrier and of John the Baptist ; the first 
in his official capacity as the " Messenger of the Gods," and the last in 
intimation of the necessity of our application of the principle represented 
by the Baptist — that of purification in body and mind — for the true 
discernment of the Christ-idea. But it was only by degrees and after a 
considerable pdriod that the full significance of the instruction disclosed 
itself to us, so far in advance was it of what we then knew. 

His claim to the power of conferring the divine life was, in itself 
a demonstration of his own divinity. No mere human soul, nor spirit 
of a grade below the divine, could, or would presume to, assert such 
a claim. 

The true "bi-unity" of the mystic man, referred to in verse 25, 
consists in the equilibration of the mind and soul as shown by the equal 
use of the mind's two modes, the intellect and the intuition, which are, 
respectively, its musculine and feminine modes. 

Note L, pages 240, 255 

Alth -ugh Dionysos and Aphrodite are mystically the third and fourth 
of the Gods, they are actually the fourth and third, this being their 
relative position by the order of their planets, and of their correspond- 
ing rays in the spectrum. For Venus, which holds in the solar system 
the place of the yellow in the prism, and is the brightest both of the 
planets and of the rays, comes next outside that of Hermes, whose ray 
is the orange, and whose planet is Mercury; and the planet of Dionysos 
or Iacchos— the Earth, — whose ray is the green, comes next outside 
Venus. And such is their position in the Greek and Hebrew theo- 
gonies (for the latter of which see Isa. xi. 2, 3, the Douay rendering 
for preference) and in the "Apostles' Creed." But in the Mosaic 
theogony and cosmogony this order is inverted, and the creation of the 
earth, which is represented by Dionysos, is placed on the "third day," 
while the work of Aphrodite is placed on the "fourth day." And in 
this order these hymns were received and are here given. The follow- 
ing are the chief reasons for this arrangement : — 

I. As the Spirit of Love or Counsel, Aphrodite is the enlightener 
of the spiritual eyes and revealer of heaven to earth. She is also the 



296 " Clothed with the Sun" 

centripetal force whereby man is drawn inwards to God. Wherefore 
the earth must have being, and the centrifugal force must have fulfilled 
its part in the work of creation, before she can exercise her function in 
the work of redemption. 

2. As the Spirit of Power, and representative of the centrifugal 
force whereby the Divine substance is projected into the condition of 
matter, and the earth created, Dionysos must exercise his function 
before the centripetal force, which is Love, can manifest itself. 

3. As representative of the soul, which, though first in being and in 
dignity, is the last to find recognition, Aphrodite remains unperceived 
until polarised by means of the bodily elements. So that, although 
Love really subsists prior to any exercise of force, inasmuch as she is 
the source of the desire which puts force — whatever its kind, physical 
or mental — in action, she is veiled and hidden until the mind recognises 
the need of her and acquires the power to discern her. For which 
reason also her "day " or manifestation succeeds that of Dionysos. 

Note M, page 241. 

The meaning of this and the less obvious of the foregoing symbols is 
as lol.ows : — 

V. 2. " Twice-bprn " denotes regeneration. The first birth is that 
of the exterior or bodily man ; the second is that of the interior or 
spiritual man. This latter is produced in and of the former, and is 
thus " Son of man ;" but whereas its true parents are the soul and the 
Divine Spirit, and the soul when pure is mystically termed water and 
"Virgin Maria,'' the interior or spiritual man is said to be born of 
water and the Spirit, or Virgin Maria and the Holy Ghost, and is at 
once Son of man and of God. See " Definitions," Regeneration. 

Iacchos, in being the mystic Baccbos, denotes the planetary Spirit 
after its passage through this process in and by means of the human 
soul ; the way of perfection being one for both macrocosm and micro- 
cosm. 

"Beneath the earth," a phrase equivalent to the "cave- of 

Iacchos" (Part II. No. XIV. (3)), and implying the mysteries of the 
body. 

V. 3. " The horns of the ram," a symbol of force, especially oi in- 
tellectual force. 

" Who ridest upon an ass," a symbol at once of humility and 

patient endurance. This animal is marked on the lack with a c: 

V. 4. The " Daughter of the King " is the soul, whether in the 



Appendix. 297 

individual or in the universal, so-called because proceeding from the 
higher mind, or Nous, mystically styled the King. The planet-god is 
herein recognised as proceeding from and constituted of the universal 
life and substance. 

Note N, page 244. 
See note on p. 193. 

Note O, page 226, 244. 

The full perfectionment, while yet in the body, of the process de- 
noted by the term Christ, involves the redemption of the body from its 
material limitations, through the reversion of its constituents from the 
condition of matter to that of spirit. This is called transmutation, 
and also resurrection. See Part II. No. IX.; also "Definitions," 
Resurrection, 

Note P, page 253. 

Poseidon is styled "Father of souls," in virtue of his representing 
the masculine energy of the sea, which is the symbol of the substance, 
or " Mother," of souls. It is for this reason that he is chosen as 
emblem of the third gospel, that of Luke, which deals especially with 
the relations of Christ to the soul, as distinguished from-the other three 
elements of the microcosm. See Note R. 

Note Q, page 254. 

By the contemplation of wisdom man acquires wisdom, the highest 
product of which is the "philosopher's stone" of a spirit perfectly 
quiescent, and inaccessible to assault whether from within or from 
without. By wisdom, too, the soul is attracted and absorbed. The 
mystical meaning of the head of the Gorgon Medusa is thus — as custom- 
ary in mystical presentations — the opposite of the apparent meaning. 

Note R, page 255. 

The sapphire throne and four wheels of Ezekiel ; the Merkaba, or 
Car, of the Kabala ; the Kaabeh, or Cube, of Islam ; the four Rivers 
of F.den ; the four living Creatures of Ezekiel, the Apocalypse, and the 
book of Enoch, and which also are the symbols of the four Evangelists ; 
and the celestial chariot of Adonai, — all these alike denote the fourfold 
existence in which, as in a vehicle, Deity descends into manifestation or 



298 " Clothed with the S;:;i" 

creation, and of which both macrocosm and microcosm are constituted. 
The four are, respectively, the material, the astral, the psychic, and the 
spiritual. See "The Perfect Way," VI. Part L, and VUL, final par. 
of Part iii 

Note S, page 257. 

For which reason the Christ, as the rea.isation of man's divine 
potentialities, is said to be born in a cave and a stable. 

Note T, page 25S. 

V. 28. The choice of the ring-dove to be the emblem of the Holy 
Spirit is due to the hues of the circle round its throat, the colours of 
which are taken to represent the Seven Spirits of God, or rays of the 
prism constituted by the Trinity. 

V. 29. The only message from earth that can look to find accept- 
ance in heaven, is that which announces the consummation of the pro- 
phecy of Apoc. xvi. 12 : — That M the water of the great river Euphrates 
is dried up, and the way prepared for the kings of the East." 

For the Euphrates is the will of man, 1 and until this is "dried up " 
and sublimed in him, and is no longer the human but the divine will, 
he cannot receive the divine knowledges of which the bearers arc 
"kings of the last," or messengers from the source of all spiritual 
light. It was given to Anna Kingsford to be the first to identify these 
"kings." Christian tradition places their number at three. She 
gnised them as the three principles in man, without whose com- 
bined operation no truth can be discerned, but through whose com- 
bined operation all truth can be discerned, namely, the Spirit, the 
Soul, and $ie Mind, operating respectively as Right Aspiration, R 
Perception, and Right Judgment. And the sequel of their advent, 
whether for the individual or the general, is ever that " 
of the Lord," wherein it is sail "the knowledge of the Lord - 
cover the earth as the waters cover the sea," and the soul is at p<-:. 

For those who recognise and appreciate her work, it is hardly possible 
not to regard her very names as a prophecy of her appointed : 
that a way specially prepared for kings across a dried-up river is no 
other than a A'l'n^s' Ford ; and that the "good time" called ' 
acceptable year of the Lord " is no other than an Annus Bonus, 

t See page 34. 



Appendix. 299 

Among other striking and no less undesigned coincidences, so far as 
concerns human agency, was that of the names given to her on her 
reception into the Roman Communion, — long anterior to her spiritual 
work, — for they were the names of all the women who were by the 
Cross or at the Sepulchre. 

To this step, as also to that of obtaining a medical degree at the 
University of Paris, she had — as was in due time made clear to us — ■ 
been prompted in anticipation of her destined spiritual work. Having 
for its object the downfall of the world's materialistic system, both in 
relgion and in science, it was requisite that the instrument of that 
work should, in order to be able to speak with full knowledge, undergo 
initiation in the chief strongholds of the doomed system. 

Note U, page 263. 

There are two processions of the seven primary Gods, or Spirits of 
God, the first by emanation, and the second by evolution, but the 
evolution is not of the Gods themselves but of their manifestation in 
time. The direction of one of these processions is the reverse of that 
of the other. The first is from within outwards, and occurs through 
the operation of the Deity within and upon itself. By this operation 
the divine potencies are projected to the furthest verge of the destined 
kosmos, which — though fourfold as to elements — is always in idea a 
globe consisting of seven concentric spheres, each divinity having his 
own sphere, and the outermost being assigned to Saturn or Satan, who 
is thus the circumference of the entity concerned, having beyo.id him 
only the void. Representing the seventh and outermost sphere, and 
projected after all the others, Saturn is called the seventh and last, 
and therefore — in this order — the "youngest of the gods." Thus, as 
matter is the antithetical ultimate, or "adversary," of Spirit, yet without 
ceasing to be Spirit, so is Saturn — or Satan— the antithetical ultimate, 
or " adversary," of God, yet without ceasing to be God. 

In this sphere manifestation begins, for not only is it the sphere of 
matter, which is Spirit — by the force of the Divine Will projected into 
conditions and limitations, and made exteriorly cognisable— but Saturn 
is the principle itself of manifestation, and herein of matter, time, and 
all other limiting conditions. Hence he is the principle also of Indi- 
viduation, whereby from being universal and abstract, Spirit becomes 
particular and concrete. Himself the first to be manifested in the 
kosnv s thus initiated, Saturn heads the procession which is by evolu- 



300 " Clothed with the Sun. 

tion, and hence, in this order, is the first and "eldest" of the Gods. 
And upon his sphere or kingdom as basis the kosmos is built up from 
without inwards, each God presiding over the work in his own domain, 
until the whole is completed by the attainment of the innermost and 
highest. This accomplished, the kosmos is made in the divine image, 
the Sabbath of perfection is attained, and "God rests from His work," 
so far as regards the particular entity concerned. 

These two processions, which are in perpetual simultaneous operation 
for the whole duration of the manifest universe, represent and are due 
to two forces, or rather two modes of force, which constitute two 
streams consisting of the Divine substance and energy. Of these streams 
one flows outwards and downwards, and the other inwards and up- 
wards ; one is centrifugal, the other centripetal ; one is projective, the 
other attractive ; one represents Will, the other Love ; one results in 
Creation, the other in Redemption. And as complements of each other 
they are as indispensable to each other and to the stability of the kus- 
mos, as are the centrifugal and centripetal modes of force to the stability 
of the solar system; and whereas one is masculine and the other femi- 
nine, man is no less said to be " made in the divine image, male and 
female," because built up of them both, than because also built up of 
the Seven Spirits of the Divine Duad. 

The substance of all things is spirit, is consciousness. Wherefore 
all things are modes of consciousness, and all being is consciousness, 
and consciousness is being, and non-consciousness is non-being. And 
whereas the outermost sphere of any existing entity is that of the 
lowest mode of consciousness, wherein it touches negation, ihat which 
lies without such sphere is non-consciousness, and, therefore, non- 
being,— a state the entrance into which constitutes extinction of being. 
At once the negation of consciousness and of being, this slate consti- 
tutes the negation of God, which is theologically called the devil (as 
see page 216). * 

The transcendent importance of the functions of Satan, and their 
absolute necessity, not only to the well-being, but to the very being of 
the individual, become specially apparent when it is considered (1) that 
as the "bourne of the divine impulsion,"' he is the circumferential limit 
whereby life and substance are arrested in their outward course and 
made to return to their centre, thus converting into a permanent kosmos 
that which, but for his intervention, would be dissipated in space. And 
(2) that but for his guardianship of the outermost sphere, there « 
be nought to hinder the irruption irom the surrounding void into the 



Appendix. 301 



kosmos, of its deadly foe the principle, if the term can be applied to 
a nonentity, of the negation of God, and therein, of all being. 

The passages in which the Bible seems to identify Satan with the 
devil, constitute, when properly considered, no contradiction to this 
view, even without the counterbalancing aid of passages which directly 
favour this view. For, although constituting integral parts of the same 
kosmos, the inner and spiritual and the outer and material are in. a 
sense antagonistic to each other, and a retrogression from the former to 
the latter, h hen once the latter has been transcended, is a descent which, 
unless timely arrested, lands the soul in the region of negation. The 
sphere of Satan and of the devil are conterminous, and whe'e a down- 
ward course is persisted in, Satan becomes the minister of the devil in 
that in ejecting the irredeemably perverse from the precincts of the 
kingdom, he consigns him to final destruction. But his enmity is not 
for the sinner, but for the sin ; and his " temptations" are for the trial, 
not for the condemnation, of the subject of them, and to test his fitness 
for the kingdom. The apocalyptic "binding of Satan for a thousand 
years" is but an expression implying the exemption of the saints 
from a return into material conditions for a prolonged period, during 
which Satan is said to be bound, so far as concerns them. But 
even if it had been the intention of the Bible-writers to identify the 
devil and Satan in the manner commonly supposed, no authority of 
book can override and set at nought a necessary and self-evident truth 
clearly discernible as founded in the very nature of existence, such 
as that of the interpretation here given. And indeed, as stated in 
the preface and elsewhere, one of the main purposes of the restoration 
represented by this volume is to "utterly abolish the idols" whether 
they consist in books, persons, traditions, or institutions. 

But there is not the smallest reason for ascribing to the Bible-writers 
any such intention. They wrote as initiates for initiates, and knew 
that by these the true values would be attached to the terms employed, 
however liable to be mistaken by others ; and a sufficient motive for 
such concealment of the truth concerning Satan is to be found in the 
fact that it was the most jealously guarded of all the mysteries, being- 
according to the instructions given to us — communicated only to ini- 
tiates of the very highest grade. And it was imparted to us under 
injunctions of our observing the strictest secrecy, at least "until the 
word be completed ; " and only during Mrs Kir.gsford's last illness was 
this so far accomplished, that the promulgation was permitted. The 
personality assumed by the illuminating spirit on the occasion was that 



302 " Clothed with the Sun" 

of Phoibos Apollo, — an indication that, owing to its profound nature, 
only by the first of the Gods might the crowning mystery of the last of 
the Gods be disclosed. 

Note V, page 264. 

Saturn, as Kronos or Time, is said to bear all the Gods on his 
shoulders because their manifestation occurs in and through time ; and 
he is, himself, the first to be manifested, and is the very principle of 
time and manifestation. Moreover, the faculties in man by means of 
which they find recognition by man, are the product of experience 
acquired in time. This was implied in the vision shown to Mrs Kings- 
ford on the eve of her receipt of the first instalment of this instruction 
concerning Satan, — a vision, at the time wholly unintelligible, in which 
she beheld Hermes being carried through space on the back of Saturn. 

Note W, page 268. 

That is, from the condition of Existence or manifested Being, to the 
condition of pure, or unmanifested, Being. 

Note X, page 268. 

The spirit of the regenerated ego in and by whom we realise the 
divine potentialities of our nature, is, for each of us, " Christ our Lord." 
And inasmuch as this ego is generated in time, and is the crown of 
manifestation, and final realisation of the divine idea in creation, for 
the evolution of whom the whole universe works together, and Satan 
is the principle of manifestation, the ministry of Satan is said to have 
been "ordained of God before the worlds, for the splendour (or efful- 
gence) of the manifest, and the generation of Christ our Lord." And 
this applies to Christ from the point of view alike of the microcosm or 
individual, and of the macrocosm or universal. For. just as the macro- 
cosm itself comprises and is constituted of the sum total of the micro- 
cosms, so the macrocosmic Christ comprises and is constituted of the 
sum total of the microcosm 1 c Christs, or spirits of the regenerated 
human egos, all these throughout the universe being combined and 
blended into one indefeasible personality, representing the individuals 
sation of the Supreme Being, or personification of the Divine Imper- 
sonal, through man, by means of evolution. Thus "generated '' and 
constituted, Christ is the "Son" in and by whom the " Father" rinds 
His ultimate full expression, as do the unmanifest light and heat of the 
system in and by the solar orb. 






Appendix. 303 

But the consciousness or potency of the universal Christ must not be 
regarded as limited to the sum total of the associated consciousnesses 
of the human egos composing him, any more than the consciousness of 
the individual man is to be regarded as limited to the sum total of the 
associated consciousnesses of his system. For just as the human ego 
represents all the consciousnesses of man's system centralised into a unity 
and polarised to a higher plane, so does the macrocosmic Christ repre- 
sent the consciousnesses of all the microcosmic Christs centralised into a 
unity and polarised to a higher plane. Thus, as — to cite " The Perfect 
Way" (V. 17) — "the soul of the planet is more than the associated 
essences of the souls composing it ; and the consciousness of the 
system is more than that of the associated world-consciousnesses ; and 
the consciousness of the manifest universe is more than that of the 
corporate systems," so is the universal Christ more than the sum of the 
individual Christs or Divine Spirits of the regenerated human egos of 
which he consists. And as in the individual microcosm this Christ is 
the radiant point, or " One Life," whence the Divine effulgence flows 
to illume and vivify the man, so in the universal macrocosm the Christ 
similarly constituted is the radiant point or "One Life," whence the 
Divine effulgence flows to vivify and illume the universal Church, 
invisible and visible, of the elect, which is the nucleus of which He is 
the nucleolus, or body of which Pie is the soul. And that wherein 
He differs from and surpasses all other Gods — even while constituted 
like them — is that, whereas they represent but partial modes or aspects 
ot Deity, each one being but as a single ray of the Divine spectrum, 
He represents Deity in its integrity, inasmuch as He combines in Him- 
self the whole of the Divine rays, being the result of the operation 
of them all. Thus generated through humanity, and therefore Son 
at once of God and man, and "our Lord," He becomes the counter- 
part or replica of Adonai, who — being generated in substance — is Son 
of God only, and is " the Lord." 

Now, "the consciousness of the unmanifest Deity is greater than that 
of the manifest, for the manifest does not exhaust the unmanifest." 
Wherefore, in manifestation, "the Father is greater than the Son;" 
while in substance, they are " co-equal and co-eternaL" 

NOTE Y, page 269. 
The difference between the account herein given of the Lord's death 
and burial (verses 53, 64), and that of Jesus in Part I., No. XXXIII., 
presents no difficulty when it is considered that the foimer deals, as do 



304 " Clothed with the Sun." 

the gospels, with the mystical or spiritual history of the typical Man 
Regenerate, and the latter with his physical history, and that it is quite 
sufficient for the purpose of the narrative that the correspondence 
between the two histories be general only and not particular. The 
object of the gospels was not to exalt an individual but to delineate an 
order, the order of ..he "Sons of God," for the sake of exhibiting the 
highest possibilities of humanity. And it is for this reason that while 
the events which occurred to Jesus were used and adapted to illustrate 
certain doctrines, they were not followed in all their details. To have 
so followed them would have been to give the physical history of but 
one of the " Sons of God," instead of the spiritual history of them all. 



DEFINITIONS and EXPLANATIONS of TERMS and 

PHRASES NOT GENERALLY FAMILIAR, OR USED IN AN UN- 
FAMILIAR SENSE. 

Adam and Eve. In their mystical sense, and as applied to the indi- 
vidual, Adam and Eve are respectively the exterior selfhood, or sense 
and reason, and the interior selfhood, or soul and intuition, which 
together constitute the human being. And they are as man and woman 
to each other, in that they represent respectively the centrifugal or force 
element, which is the masculine, and the centripetal or love element, 
which is the feminine clement of existence. For a full treatment of this 
subject, see "The Perfect Way," Lectures VI. and VII. 

Arche} a Greek term, signifying beginning, first cause, origin, and 
said to have been first used by Anaximander (B.C. 5S0) in the sense of 
principle [principium) to denote the eternal and infinite basis or sub- 
stance [sMb-stans] of things, and which is therefore not itself a thing, 
but that from which all things proceed, and of which they aU consist, 
and to which they oil return. It is thus the containing, and therefore 
the feminine, element Or mode of Deity, as distinguished from the ener- 
gising and masculine element or mode ; or God the Mother as dis- 
tinguished from God the Father. It is termed also the fourth dimen- 
sion, or the within of space, from which the other dimensions pre. 
and the nonmawn, reality, being, or "thing in itself," which underlies 
or stib-stands the phenomenon, appearance, existence, or thing per- 
ceived. As original, divine, and self-subsistent, and therein distin- 

1 In Arche, Aphrodite, Persephone, Psyche, Herpe, and all Greek terms ending 
in e. the final letter i> sounded. The ck is usually pronounce 



Appendix. 305 

guished from matter, which is secondary, derived, and created, Arche 
denotes the substance alike of divinity and of the soul, the nucleus of 
the nucleolus in both God and man. The word Ark is derived from it, 
and like the work Ark, the Hebrew for which is tebah, means any 
kind of containing vessel.^ In one of the ancient versions of the Bible — 
the Coptic — thebi is used instead of tebah, a form which relates it still 
more closely to Tibet, Thebes, and other places similarly so named 
apparently as being homes of the Mysteries, and as representing, Ihere- 
fore, the Soul as the dwelling-place of the Spirit, and source of all 
Divine knowledges. 1 Thus, in its highest application, the ark of Noah 
denotes the original Divine substance containing in its bosom the 
"eight persons," God (the Nous) and His seven spirits, of whom all 
the universe is overspread. 

Astral fluid ; the universal ether of space and immediate sub- 
stance of the manifested universe, which becomes the various elements 
by means of differentiality of polarisation. It is not the substance 
of the soul, whether unindividuate or individuate, for that is divine 
and uncreate ; but it is the first projection of soul-substance into 
the material of creation, and is as the veil of the soul. It subsists 
under many degrees of purity or tenuity, and is the abode of all 
spirits below the celestial. In man it constitutes the third element 
of his system, counting from within outwards, and coming next to the 
body, acts as the intervening medium between it and the soul. As 
thought-substance, it is the seat of the mundane mind or lower reason ; 
and a disorderly condition of it is a frequent cause of such mental 
derangements as are not due to lesions of the organism. 

Astral Spirits. While the astral sphere is the abode of all spirits 
below the celestial, and their exterior covering or ethereal body is con- 
stituted of it, there are spirits, or rather entities so-called, which are 
constituted entirely of it, having neither a spiritual nor a material 
nature. These have no existence apart from man, and are emanations 
from man, being to him as reflects of himself,' but devoid of substanti- 
ality as the images in a mirror. As with morbid growths in the physical 
system, such as tumours, they become new centres of activity in the 
system, deriving their sustenance from the system generally, to the deple- 
tion and emaciation of the individual ; and only by a healthy regime in 
mind and body, of which earnest and frequent prayer is an important 
element, can they be subdued and the vitality absorbed by them returned 

* See page 89, note 1. 
U 



306 u Clothed with the Sun* 

into its proper channels. The function of prayer in such cases consists 
in its being a means of directing the mind inwards and upwards with 
such energy as to convert its otherwise lambent and diffused substance 
into a flame, so to speak, thereby rendering it incapable of division 
or diversion, — a condition incompatible with astral obsession. The 
astral fluid constitutes the perispirit, double, or astral body of man 
in life, and his phantom, ghost, or Ruach after death. The astral body 
is called also the magnetic and odic body, according as the reference 
is to the substance, the force, or some other attribute. The term odic 
is claimed to be of oriental derivation. The Hindus apply the term 
Akasa to the astral ether in its primordial or pre-cosmic state. The 
astral emanations or " reflects" of persons are visible to the lucid, who 
— unless duly instructed — is unable to discriminate between them and 
genuine extraneous spirits, so life-like are their impersonations. The 
merely mechanical "medium" is readily responsive to their influence. 
And many besides mediums are liable to receive from them mental 
suggestions — often of the most mischievous character — and to mistake 
them for suggestions arising from a divine or some other source entitled 
to be heeded. The astral phantom may serve as a medium of communi- 
cation with an actual departed spirit ; but the message depends for its 
value upon its independence of the transmitting vehicle. The mere 
phantom, uncontrolled by the soul, is no trustworthy instructor or guide, 
and inasmuch as the astral is rather an emanation from the body than 
a distinct element, it is essential to clear spiritual vision that the body 
also be subjected to the rule of purity, especially in respect of diet. 

Thus far concerning the astral on its occult side. In its mystical 
aspect it denotes (as explained in Note K) the region of spiritual weak- 
ness, doubt, temptation, difficulty, and distress, upon which the aspirant 
enters on his emergence from the " Egypt " of things material merely 
and intellectual, when he sets his face towards the " Promised Land" of 
spiritual perfection. For the wilderness that lies between, and must be 
painfully traversed, is no other than the astral belt within his own sys- 
tem, already in these pages so exquisitely presented in the hymn to the 
planet-god [Part II., XIIL, (6)], as to need no further explanation here. 
Concerning the distinction between the terms mystical and occult, see 
the explanation given under Occultism. 

The Elect is a term the misunderstanding of which has been a 
stumbling-block and a curse to Christendom. And the evil has arisen 
through the suppression of the doctrine of a multiplicity of earth-lives, 
otherwise called the doctrine of re-incarnation or transmigration, and 



Appendix. 307 

the consequent assumption that all who are not actually of the elect are 
hopelessly reprobate and lost ; — a belief which, by its ascription to God 
of a capricious, arbitrary, and pitiless character, has served greatly to 
obscure from view the perfection of the Divine Nature. 

The truth is that by the elect are denoted only those in whom the 
redemptive process has already proceeded so far as to ensure their 
ultimate salvation, all others being still in too rudimentary a stage 
of their evolution to have attained to this desirable state, and, there- 
fore, still without assurance of salvation, and consequently liable to 
failure. 

Seeing how small a proportion of persons in any one period or genera- 
tion are entitled to be regarded as elect, and how complex and pro- 
longed the process requisite for the elaboration of the individual from his 
beginning in the lowest forms of organic life to the summit of human 
evolution, where humanity unites with Deity, — the denial of a multiplicity 
of earth-lives to afford the requisite opportunities of experience would be 
a sentence of perdition upon the entire race. Whereas, as it is, — according 
to the ancient and universal doctrine now newly recovered — so far from 
souls having their beginning at some arbitrary stage upon the ladder of 
evolution, with their destiny for eternal bliss or woe, not merely 
dependent upon the use made by them of a single brief existence, 
amid conditions wholly new and strange to them, but arbitrarily fixed 
independently of aught that they can do or desire, — they begin at the 
lowest round, and returning again and again to the body, have ample 
time and opportunity to determine their final lot for themselves, 
according to the tendencies voluntarily encouraged by them. 

Hades (Heb. Sheol = hell ; lit. in darkness) denotes the lower spheres 
of the consciousness, the material and astral, to be in which is to the 
soul, which belongs by its nature to the higher and celestial, to be " in 
prison," or " beneath the altar." See p. 234. 

lacchos, Jacob, and Joachim. The last of these three names is that 
which Christian tradition assigns to the father of the Virgin Mary, in 
obvious recognition of her derivation as the soul, from him as the 
planetary Spirit. The names themselves are not only related to each 
other in form and meaning, but they have a common reference to the 
special functions and characteristics of the god of the fourth sphere, — 
the earth, matter, or body. For in implying force, effort, success, and 
triumph, they indicate all the stages through which spirit passes, from 
its first projection into matter to its redemption and final exaltation in 
soul. It is true that the successes of Jacob over his brother Esau, 



308 " Clothed with the Sun." 

wherein he supplanted him in his birthright and blessing, are ascribed 
to craft, and only his success when he "wrestled with God, and pre- 
vailed," to force. But inasmuch as the brothers are types respectively of 
the exterior and the interior self-hood, of which the former is the elder, 
in virtue of its being the first to be manifested in man, the craft by which 
Jacob obtained his advantage denotes precisely that superior subtlety 
of nature whereby the soul surpasses the body, and demonstrates itself 
as the true and only possible inheritor of eternal life. 

The Egyptian origin of Joachim (as also of Jehovah) is indicated in 
2 Kings xxiii. 34, where Pharaoh is said to have changed the name of 
Eliakim to JehoizkXm. (of which Joachim is an equivalent) ; while the 
identity of this name with Iacchos is implied in the fact of its being 
thus imposed by the conquering upon the conquered king, since only 
the names of the gods of the former were thus imposed. 

Karma. By the recent appropriation of this Eastern term into the 
English language, a most valuable addition has been made to our 
vocabulary of mystical science. It is not yet sufficiently familiar, how- 
ever, to render a definition of it superfluous. The idea implied by it, 
namely, the persistence after death of the effects of the tendencies 
encouraged and the characteristics acquired in life, and the neces 
where these have been bad, of expiation and amendment by the subject 
of them, is involved in the doctrine of purgatory and retribution. But 
inasmuch as by Karma is meant a repeated return into the earth-life, 
there to work out in new bodies the evil consequences of past lives, 
and by means of multiplied experiences to rectify defects of character ; 
and by purgatory is meant only a post-mortem expiation by suffering, 
and no experiential development, the latter term is in no sense an 
equivalent for the former. 

The inability of the vast majority of persons to remember their pre- 
vious existences is due to the fact that the return is that only of the 
permanent ego or soul, and not of the external personality ; and that 
they are very few in number who succeed during life in establishing 
with their souls relations so intimate as to gain cognisance of their s 
history. But the fact that the outer personality is left thus uninformed 
on the subject, in no way invalidates either the truth or the value 
incarnation, since the function of the body is to serve as an instrument 
by and through which the soul obtains experiences, and the end 01 those 
experiences is attained when the soul applies them to its own advance- 
ment. Nor is the fact — if it be a fact — that but comp;. ew of 
the spirits with whom intercourse is held admit the doctrine valid as 



Appendix. 3°9 



an argument against it, since the agent of such communication is rarely 
the soul itself but only its astral envelope, and this is in no better 
position than the material body to pronounce upon the question. 

Miracle. In default of a prior definition of the terms natural and 
human, the terms supernatural and superhuman must be rigidly ex- 
cluded from any attempt to define miracle. In defining miracle as the 
" natural effect of an exceptional cause " (p. 91), the term natural is used 
simply in the sense of orderly, regular, normal, legitimate. Wherefore 
it remains only to show in what sense the cause is exceptional. This 
term derives its force from the inequality of human development in 
respect of human capacities. As a microcosm of the macrocosm, man 
comprises in his system, either actually or potentially, all that is in the 
universe ; and in virtue of his having obtained the consciousness of and 
mastery over any plane within himself, he is able to attain the conscious- 
ness of and mastery over the corresponding plane without himself. The 
fully developed man — he who, having realised all the potentialities of 
his nature, is a typical Man — is able to exercise mastery over planes of 
being, of the very existence of which the undeveloped man is ignorant, 
finding no answering consciousness of them in himself. To him, there- 
fore, the manifest tokens of such mastery constitute miracles. They 
represent for him a region and a power which by virtue of their trans- 
cending his own range of observation and ability, are apt to be regarded 
by him as also transcending nature, and as being, therefore, miracu- 
lous. But neither do they transcend nature, nor are they miraculous 
(using these terms in the conventional sense) for the man who works 
them, because he knows them to be the natural effects of causes which 
are exceptional only in that they appertain to a sphere of nature known 
to but a comparative few. Nor would they be regarded as transcend- 
ing nature and as being miraculous even by the undeveloped witness of 
them, save for the liability of the undeveloped man to regard himself 
and his compeers as typical men, and as the measure of nature and of 
humanity, and to consider all that transcends their own limits as also 
transcending nature and man. Their mistake lies, of course, in re- 
stricting their conception of nature and man to the material and 
physical, and then either assuming that the psychical and spiritual are 
beyond nature and man, or denying to them any real being. 

Now, the undeveloped man subsists under two modes. In one of 
these he is altogether rudimentary in respect of all faculties which sur- 
pass the physical, namely, the intellectual, the moral, and the spiritual. 
And in the other, he is developed — possibly to an extraordinary degree 



310 u Clothed with the San'* 

—in respect of some one of the spheres of consciousness denoted by th^se 
terms, and yet is altogether rudimentary as regards the others. The 
typical scientist of the day, for instance, is one who is highly developed 
in respect of the intellectual faculty so far as regards the consciousness 
of things material ; but as regards that of things moral and spiritual he 
is altogether rudimentary, and his attitude towards experiences of the 
order commonly accounted miraculous and supernatural, is one of such 
determined antagonism — through his inability to recognise the cor- 
responding regions in himself — as to render him wholly inaccessible to 
reason and evidence in their behalf. This is to say, he has a fixed idea 
which no reason or evidence can overcome. Now, it is a significant fact 
that the possession of a fixed idea, which no reason or evidence can 
overcome, is by materialistic scientists themselves — those whose speciality 
is medicine — accounted a sufficient plea for certifying its possessor as 
insane and unfit to be at large. 

It is by persons similarly rudimentary in respect of the spiritual con- 
sciousness that the important function of literary criticism is for by far 
the most part exercised ; the result being that the confession of spiritual 
experiences is treated in a tone of contempt and ribaldry such as largely 
to deter from the promulgation of this class of experiences ; their 
recipients shrinking alike from exposing their "pearls n to profar 
ami themselves to contumely and affront. Hence it has come that, 
between the physician and the literary critic, the confession of experi- 
ences indicative of man's higher potentialities— and, in such sense, 
"miraculous" — has in our day been ma.. . and the world 

has in consequence been deprived of testimony which would have gone 
far to save it from the abyss of unreason and negation into which it has 
fallen. And this repression and rejection of experience in deference 
to an hypothesis— it is curious to note— has occurred in an age which 
vaunts itself superior to all other ages, especially on the ground that it 
takes nothing lor granted, but makes experience the sole basis of 
know! 

Such denial of man's higher potentialities is, moreover, utterly incon- 
sistent with the belief in evolution as the method of creation, combined 
as that belief is with the confession of absolute ignorance respecting the 
nature o\ the substance in which evolution o>. 

Mysticism (in religion) has for its antithesis son (in religion), 

in that it deals with those realities and verities which are spiritual, 
eternal, and o( the soul — that is, with principles. - 

appertaining to the interior consciousness — instead of with pen 



Appendix. 311 

places, and events which are physical, historical, and of the senses ; 

and regards the sacred writings when expressed in terms derived from 
the latter as really referring to the former, and valuable only in 
so far as they do refer to the former. For which reason the re- 
ligious mystic cares for the letter of Scripture only in so far as it is a 
vehicle for the spirit, and makes it his study to discern the spirit 
through the letter, and by all means to avoid limiting the spirit by the 
letter ; considering that to the substitution of the literal for the spiritual 
sense of Scripture has been due the perversion of Christianity into a fetish 
at once monstrous, idolatrous, and dishonouring both to God and to 
man. Wherefore in the condition hitherto prevailing in Christendom, 
the mystic sees the fulfilment as of a prophecy, of the saying that " the 
letter kills," so completely has the worship of it killed the faculty of the 
perception of divine things. And he insists accordingly that only 
through the revival of Mysticism can the true Christianity — that, namely, 
of Christ — be restored. 

Mysticism and Occultism. These terms are so far identical in that 
they are respectively the Greek and the Latin for that which, by its 
nature, is hidden or secret as concerns the outer perceptions. But they 
differ essentially in respect of the particular region or department of the 
hidden and secret to which they respectively refer. Occultism deals 
with the region and its phenomena, which, being interior to the body 
and exterior to the soul, constitutes the astral or magnetic circulus 
which separates one from the other, and is the immediate environment 
of the soul. And Mysticism deals with principles, processes, and states 
which, being interior to the soul and comprising the spirit, determine 
the soul's progress and condition. This is to say, that Occultism implies 
transcendental physics, and belongs to the kingdom of science and the 
intellect, and is "human." And Mysticism implies transcendental meta- 
physics, and belongs to the kingdom of religion and the intuition, and 
is divine. Of these two kingdoms the typical representatives are, 
respectively, the Adept and the Christ. By which explanation is 
illustrated this utterance made to Anna Kingsford by her divine 
illuminator : "If Occultism were all, and held the key of heaven, 
there would be no need of Christ. ... If the adepts in Occultism or 
in physical science could suffice to man, I would have committed no 
message to you " (pp. 99, 100). 

Noumenon. See under Arcke. 

Polarisation. Every particle of matter, however minute or tenuous, 
whether fixed or fluidic, has two magnetic poles, a positive and a 



312 " Clothed with the Sun" 

negative. Polarisation, as the term is applied in this book and in 
" The Perfect Way," consists in the arrangement of the particles con- 
stituting any entity, in such order as to bring each pole of every particle 
into immediate conjunction with the opposite pole of another particle 
— the positive in one joining on to the negative in another — so as to 
admit of the passage of a continuous current of energy throughout the 
whole series. 

Regeneration. This term implies much more than is ascribed to it 
by the theological dictionaries, and the failure to understand it has been 
the cause of all the perversions of Christianity. For, had the doctrine 
of salvation through regeneration, so emphatically asserted by Jesus to 
Nicodemus, been duly comprehended, no place had been found for the 
orthodox presentation either of the Incarnation or of the atonement. 
For it means simply and purely the re-formation or reconstitution of the 
individual out of the spiritual substance of his soul, instead of the created 
material of his body. Such a man is interior, mystic, spiritual, and the 
elaboration of him occurs in the body as in a matrix constituted of 
coarser elements, the efficient cause being the operation of the Divine 
Spirit in the soul, he himself co-operating with it ; and when fully 
elaborated he can dispense altogether with the body as well as with all 
other elements exterior to the soul ; or, if the process be accomplished 
while in the body, he can indraw and transmute his body into spirit 
The individual thus produced is said to be son at once of God and of 
man. IK- is son of man, because a product of humanity; and Ik- is 
Son of God because generated immediately by the Divine energy. 
And he is said to be also son of a woman, and this a virgin, because he 
luced of the soul and constituted of the substance of the soul, 
and the soul is mystically called the woman, as being the feminine 
element in man's nature, and " mother " of the man, and when pure 
from materiality is called virgin, being named Maria after the boon 
sea of -pace, the substance at once of herself and of D*. 

Wherefore the says: nust be born again of Water and 

of the Spirit," is a declaration, first, that it is nece.-sary to ever)- one 
who would be saved, sooner or later to be born in the manner in which 
He Himself, as a typical Man Regenerate, is said to have been born; 
and, next, that the gospel narrative of His birth ■ presenta- 

tion, symbolical and dramatic, of the process of r<.^ 
physical significance whatever, the C :n and through whom 

salvation occurs, being no other than the regenerated spiritual selfhood 
in each person. ^See " The I .;.,'" V. 45.) 



Appendix. 313 



Failing to comprehend the true doctrine of atonement, and to recog- 
nise its identity with that of regeneration, the church visible has alto- 
gether set aside regeneration, and in the place both of regeneration and 
the true at-one-ment with God thereby, has rested everything on the 
false doctrine of the atonement. 

Resurrection. This term is used in Scripture in various senses, none 
of which is that commonly supposed, since there is no resurrection of the 
dead and disintegrated body. The current belief has arisen through 
the preference of the letter to the spirit, exercised in complete disre- 
gard both of the ideas intended to be conveyed by the writers of the 
mystical Scriptures, and of the facts of existence. Thus, the " graves " 
of John v. 28 imply only the lowermost strata, or modes, of conscious- 
ness, the material and astral, in which during its earth-life the soul is 
regarded as buried, and the resurrection of verse 29 is the soul's awaken- 
ing to the recognition of the destiny it has incurred through its behaviour 
during such period. There is a resurrection that occurs while in the 
body, — the resurrection from the "death in trespasses and sins," to 
the consciousness of things spiritual and to a consequent life of holiness. 
The " First Resurrection" (Apoc. xx. 5, 6) consists in the redemption 
of the body, while yet alive, from liability to death, by means of its 
transmutation or indrawal into its original spiritual substance (see Part 
I., No. XXL, and II., No. V.). They who attain to this resurrection are 
called first-fruits— first, that is, in rank (Apoc. xiv. 4). They are the ' 
fully manifested Christs who are glorified in the hymn to Phoibos. 
Paul craved this distinction, but failed through his inability to obtain 
the requisite mastery over the elements of his body. 

The other, or second, resurrection, consists in the investment of the 
soul with a spiritual body which shall serve it as an indestructible en- 
vironment after the termination of its association with the material 
and astral. Being evolved immediately from the soul itself it con- 
stitutes, not a body raised, but a raised body. 

Second Coming of Christ. A careful reading of verses 54 and 58 of 
Part II., No. V., shows that they do not necessarily imply a return of 
the actual Jesus of the Gospels, but that their sense will be satisfied by 
such a manifestation anew of the Christ-principle as shall comprise an 
exhibition of power such as that which constituted the "Ascension." 
This is the " Resurrection " — in the sense of the transmutation— of the 
body through its indrawal by the Spirit. For they in and by whom this 
process is enacted, are of the order, and bear the title, of Christ Jesus. 

Such an event would not itself constitute the " Second Coming," but 



314 " Clothed with the Sun." 

only the crowning demonstration of that coming. The coming will 
consist in the revelation anew of the Christ-idea in such wise that it 
shall be so fully understood as shall render possible the demonstration 
above described. In this sense the Second Coming may be affirmed to 
be already actually in progress, seeing that the Christ-idea is now, for 
the first time in the Church's history, being understood and male known 
in its true sense. This is the sense in which it constitutes the 
"eternal gospel" of the passage chosen for motto to this book, inas- 
much as that only is eternal which, in virtue of its being purely spiritual, 
and inherent in the nature of Being, and therefore perfectly logical, 
subsists independently of time, person, and place, and even of matter 
itself (as see Part I., No. III.). This passage has been widely accepted 
as referring to the promulgation of the Scriptures under the Reforma- 
tion. But seeing that only their letter was then promulgated, while 
their spirit was altogether reserved, its proper reference must be to a 
promulgation which for its disclosure of the latter, can alone be 
accounted a real promulgation. In this view it is the intelligent 
appreciation of the Christ-idea, now first made known, that is implied 
in the declaration that " the Son of Man shall be seen coming in the 
clouds of heaven with power and great glory;" — "heaven," and the 
"clouds of heaven" being mystical terms denoting man's higher reason, 
;he microcosmic heaven within the individual. 
So^is of God. See under Regeneration. 



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